• Global datacentre growth, fuelled by AI demand, is putting pressure on national electric grid infrastructures and water suppliers
• Datacentre operators are devising and implementing diversification strategies 
• In future, datacentres may be powered by miniaturised, modular nuclear fusion reactors and supported by next-gen fuel cells
• Equinix is the latest to outline multiple alternative power supply partnerships 

As the global datacentre sector grapples with the challenges associated with power and water supply, Redwood City, California-based datacentre and colocation giant Equinix has announced it is “working with leading energy companies that are developing innovative approaches to generating reliable and sustainable electricity to support the needs of Equinix datacentres worldwide” – and by “innovative” it mainly means nuclear. 

The US company, which describes itself as the “world’s digital infrastructure company”, has struck agreements with ‘next-generation’ nuclear providers Oklo, Radiant, ULC-Energy and Stellaria, as well as fuel cell provider Bloom Energy. 

The agreements are indicative of the type that many in the sector are likely to broker in the future as the ongoing AI-driven demand for cloud services drives increasing investment in ever bigger datacentres, which in turn put increasing pressure on local, regional and even national electricity grids. 

Providing grid power to datacentres at the expense of other customers (including domestic users) could result in energy outages affecting consumers and enterprises. With that in mind, Equinix says it is diversifying its power strategy to help mitigate ‘potential’ power constraints in the future. 

It will do so by “expanding traditional power arrangements with utilities and combining new on-site power-generation technologies and exploring next-generation nuclear energy.” 

This might even include developments in nuclear fusion rather than falling back on traditional nuclear fission technology. 

Figures from the London, UK-based International Energy Agency (IEA), suggest that global electricity consumption will rise 4% per annum until the end of 2027 and that it seems likely to continue increasing after that. Much of the additional usage is down to the demands of AI datacentres and the dawning realisation that energy grids will have to be powered by new sources of electricity. They include wind, solar and hydro-electric, natural gas and next-generation miniaturised and modular nuclear technologies offering simplified designs and very strong safety features.  

Raouf Abdel, EVP of global operations at Equinix, stated: “Access to round-the-clock electricity is critical to support the infrastructure that powers everything from AI-driven drug discovery to cloud-based video streaming. As energy demand increases, we believe we have an opportunity and responsibility to support the development of reliable, sustainable, scalable energy infrastructure that can support our collective future. By working with our energy partners, we believe we can support the energy needs of our customers and communities around the world by helping to strengthen the grid and investing in new energy sources.” 

Gone fission 

Oklo, of Santa Clara, just 20 miles down US Highway 101 from Equinix, is a company specialising in the production of the ‘Aurora’ suite of small, advanced nuclear fission reactors for off-grid applications, including datacentres, AI, remote communities, industrial sites and military bases. These models generate electricity via fast neutron technology and can be fuelled by nuclear waste: A single fuelling will keep the reactor operating for up to 10 years. Last year, Equinix was the first datacentre operator to sign a contract with Oklo to procure 500 MW of energy (a megawatt is a unit of power equal to one million watts) from the next generation of Aurora reactors. 

Oklo is also devoting much R&D money and corporate resources to the development of a fusion reactor, a technology that, it is hoped, will provide sustained, controlled, nuclear fusion in small, modular commercial reactors. Equinix evangelises that the technology is of enormous potential for the entire world, and the potential that it might provide limitless clean energy is alluring. 

Meanwhile, Equinix has also signed a ‘preorder agreement’ to buy 20 Kaleidos microreactors from Radiant, a nuclear technology specialist founded in El Segundo, Southern California, in 2020. Radiant claims its Kaleidos 1MW microreactor will be the first portable, zero-emissions commercial power source to work anywhere. Current plans call for the devices to be tested in 2026 and begin commercial deployments in 2028. The company’s founder and CEO,  Doug Bernauer, says that “in 36 months, Kaleidos reactors will arrive via truck and within 48 hours plug in, power on and provide resilient, cybersecure power.”

Elsewhere in the world, Equinix has also signed a letter of intent with ULC-Energy, an Amsterdam, Netherlands-headquartered developer of clean nuclear power, to support sustainable AI datacentre growth across the country. The power purchase agreement (PPA) calls for the delivery of up to 250MW of power. 

Since 2022, ULC-Energy has been working with UK company Rolls-Royce SMR (Small Modular Reactor) and Dirk Rabelink, ULC’s CEO, says the Rolls-Royce reactor is ideally suited to power increasing demand for datacentres by delivering “clean baseload electricity safely, reliably and affordably” based on a “realistic solution” that will support the electricity grid. 

Rolls-Royce SMR says it has designed a “factory-built” approach that provides a complete nuclear power station and ensures that 90% of its reactors will be “factory fabricated, tested and delivered to site as modules, where they will be assembled and commissioned by the Rolls-Royce SMR team.” 

Currently, Rolls-Royce SMR is developing 470 MWe (megawatt electrical, a unit of electrical power output) light water SMR units. Light water is, essentially, ordinary water, primarily composed of hydrogen-1 (protium) atoms bonded to oxygen. In such reactors it is used as a coolant to remove heat generated by the nuclear fission and as a “moderator” to slow down neutrons and so boost the likelihood of creating further, continuing nuclear fission and simplifying reactor design. In the UK, Rolls-Royce SMR is partnering with Great British Energy – Nuclear to deploy Britain’s first small modular reactors. 

Breed-and-burn reactors and innovative fuel cells 

Meanwhile, sensibly spreading its bets on reactor types, Equinix has also concluded another power purchase agreement for 500 MWe with Stellaria, a Grenoble, France, startup spun out from, and incubated, by French digital automation and energy management specialist Schneider-Electric. 

Stellaria specialises in molten-salt nuclear breed-and-burn (BBMSR) reactors, which use molten salt both as a fuel and a coolant. Its reactor, the Stellarium, is the world’s first liquid-core reactor capable of renewing 100% of its liquid fuel during operation. 

It is an isogenerator, meaning it recreates its fuel as it consumes it at a ratio of 1:1. The isogeneration results in isoreactivity, an ability to sustain a constant neutron count over several years. The burn-and-breed process maximises fuel use within the reactor core by converting radioactive isotopes, such as uranium-238 or thorium-232, into fissile material, such as plutonium or uranium-233, while minimising fuel reprocessing and reducing waste. 

Simultaneously, advanced fuel cells are another technology that can be applied for scalable, efficient and cleaner onsite energy and Equinix has an agreement with San Jose, California-based Bloom Energy to increase the deployment of solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) to generate more than 100MW across 19 datacentres in six US states.

Fuel cells generate electricity through electrochemical reactions, and whilst not the core technology for electricity generation in nuclear power plants, they play a big part in the production of hydrogen and as backup power sources. In cases of power outage, they can also provide electricity to help maintain critical systems and manage fluctuations in power demand from the grid.

All the above developments (and others) are important incremental steps towards the construction of small, modular nuclear fusion reactors, but the technology is far from being commercially viable. Optimists say it could be introduced by the mid-2030s, while pessimists (or ‘realists’ as they prefer to be called) reckon it won’t happen before the 2050s. Either way, something is going to change. 

Finally, the UK is enjoying a rare long, hot, sunny and very dry summer. There haven’t been power outages but reservoir levels are low and the sustained good weather and consequential potential drought has prompted the government to recommend the British population helps lessen the strain on datacentres and ameliorate water and electricity problems by deleting old emails and photos! It’s nonsense, of course, and the advice has been widely ridiculed. At base level, deleting data is one of the most intensive and expensive operations in data infrastructure practice and, in this misguided case, it would actually use more power to delete than just leave them quietly in situ. Deleting emails and photos would have no consequential impact on water consumption. 

For the past 30 years, more and more successive British governments have mismanaged the national water supply and industry to the extent that it is in a truly desperate state. No new reservoirs have been completed since 1992 and various water authorities are in parlous danger of collapse and nationalisation. But nine new reservoirs are planned to be built by the 2050s, so that’ll be the ideal time to delete your old holiday snaps without returning Britain to the parched dark ages.

– Martyn Warwick, Editor in Chief, TelecomTV