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The Global Market for Sustainable Data Centers 2027–2037: Policy, Green Power, Efficiency, Scope 3 and Forecasts

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  • Published: July 2026
  • Pages: 310
  • Tables: 32
  • Figures: 30

 

The market for sustainable data centers has moved, in the space of two years, from a voluntary corporate-responsibility concern to a hard commercial and regulatory constraint on the single fastest-growing category of electricity demand in the world. The trigger is the AI build-out: soaring rack densities, rising GPU thermal design power, and hyperscale campuses now specified in gigawatts have pushed data-center electricity consumption onto national-grid agendas and into direct conflict with decarbonization targets, water-stress limits, land-use politics and community opposition. The defining bottleneck is no longer capital or chips but power — multi-year grid-interconnection queues have made speed-to-power the industry's scarcest resource, driving a structural shift toward "bring-your-own-power" generation, behind-the-meter microgrids and on-site firm capacity.

This report frames the market around the three emissions scopes that govern data-center sustainability. Scope 2 (purchased electricity) is being addressed through PPAs, hourly-matched clean energy, and a widening portfolio of firm low-carbon generation — small modular reactors, nuclear restarts, enhanced geothermal, fuel cells, and gas paired with carbon capture. Scope 1 and on-site efficiency center on the transition from air to liquid cooling (direct-to-chip and immersion) as densities exceed air's physical limits, alongside 800 VDC power architectures, wide-bandgap (SiC/GaN) power electronics, and performance-per-watt gains in compute, memory and optical interconnect. Scope 3 — which dominates lifecycle emissions — spans carbon dioxide removal, low-carbon construction (green steel, low-carbon cement, mass timber), embodied carbon in IT hardware, and circularity.

Policy is now the market's principal accelerant. The EU's Energy Efficiency Directive reporting scheme, the Data Centre Energy Efficiency Package and its A–F rating scheme, and the Cloud and AI Development Act (which conditions capacity growth on efficiency, water and circularity) sit alongside US federal and state reporting rules, China's green-data-center action plans, Singapore's roadmap, and grid-connection reform in the UK and Ireland. Standards such as PUE, WUE, CUE and EPEAT are hardening from voluntary benchmarks into regulatory metrics.

The result is a rapidly expanding, technology-diverse market spanning power generation, storage, cooling, power electronics, efficient IT and Scope 3 abatement — forecast in detail to 2037 across power consumption, emissions, cooling revenue and 800 VDC adoption, under baseline, stringent-regulation and delayed-regulation scenarios. Sustainability has become inseparable from the economics and permitting of building AI infrastructure at all.

The Global Market for Sustainable Data Centers 2027–2037: Policy, Green Power, Efficiency, Scope 3 and Forecasts is a comprehensive, 10-chapter market study that combines policy analysis, technology assessment, quantitative forecasts to 2037, and 245 company profiles across the full sustainable-data-center value chain. 

Contents include:

  • Executive summary — headline numbers, policy landscape, highest-impact technologies, and forecast conclusions
  • Introduction & context — data-center types, AI build-out, global footprint, metrics and emissions accounting
  • Global policy & regulation — EU, US, China, APAC, UK; grid connection; standards and disclosure
  • Energy demand, grid stress & business case — IEA scenarios, interconnection queues, water, carbon intensity
  • Sustainable power generation — PPAs, BYOP, solar/wind, nuclear/SMRs, geothermal, CCUS, fuel cells, storage/LDES
  • Energy efficiency — cooling (air/direct-to-chip/immersion), 800 VDC and SiC/GaN power, efficient compute/memory/optics
  • Scope 3 decarbonization — CO₂ removal, green steel/cement, embodied carbon and circularity
  • Market forecasts to 2037 — power, emissions, cooling, 800 VDC, policy-scenario sensitivities
  • 244 company profiles 1414 Degrees, 3M, Aalo Atomics, AcBel Polytech, Accelsius, ACCURE Battery Intelligence, Airco Process Technology, Aker Carbon Capture, Algoma Steel, AlphaESS, Ambri, AMD, Amkor Technology, Ampace, Antora Energy, Aperam BioEnergia, ArcelorMittal, Ardent, ASE Group, Asetek, Asia Vital Components (AVC), Asperitas, Atecom Technology, Auras Technology, Ayar Labs, Baker Hughes, Ballard Power Systems, Biomason, Blastr Green Steel, Bloom Energy, Boston Metal, Boyd Corporation, Brenmiller Energy, Bright Renewables, Broadcom, BYD Energy Storage, C-Capture, Caldera, Calibrant Energy, Cambridge Electric Cement, Capsol Technologies, Carbice, CarbiCrete, Carbonaide, CarbonCure, CarbonFree, CATL, CellCube, Cerebras, Ceres Power, Chart Industries, Chemours, China Baowu, Chiyoda, Cisco Systems, Climeworks, Coherent, Coolbrook, Cooler Master, CoolIT Systems, Corintis, Dalian Rongke Power, Deep Fission, Delta Electronics, Dow, Eaton Corporation, EFFECT Photonics, Electra (Electra Steel), ElectraMet, Electrified Thermal Solutions, Element Six, Emirates Steel Arkan, Energy Dome, Energy Vault, EnergyNest, Engineered Fluids, Eoptolink, Eos Energy Enterprises, EPC (Efficient Power Conversion), ESS Tech, EVE Energy, Exowatt, Fabrinet and more.....

 

 

1             EXECUTIVE SUMMARY            20

  • 1.1        Scope and definitions              20
  • 1.2        Why data center sustainability is now a policy issue (AI build-out, grid stress, water, land)      21
  • 1.3        Data center energy demand and CO₂ emissions: the headline numbers               21
  • 1.4        The biggest contributors to the data center carbon footprint (Scope 1/2/3 split)              23
  • 1.5        The global policy landscape at a glance: from voluntary targets to binding mandates 24
  • 1.6        Regional policy heat-map: EU, US (federal + state), China, Singapore, Japan, UK, Ireland         26
  • 1.7        Grid-connection policy as the new bottleneck        26
  • 1.8        Standards, certification and reporting (PUE, WUE, CUE, EPEAT, EU energy labels)        27
  • 1.9        Which sustainable technologies have the biggest impact               27
  • 1.10     Market forecast, 2025–2037 28
  • 1.11     Key conclusions and outlook              29

 

2             INTRODUCTION: THE DATA CENTER MARKET AND SUSTAINABILTY CONTEXT 30

  • 2.1        What is a data center? Edge, colocation, enterprise, hyperscale                30
  • 2.2        The AI-driven build-out: rack density, GPU TDP and power demand         30
  • 2.3        Global data center footprint — leading markets (US, Germany, UK, Ireland, Nordics, China, Singapore, Japan)       31
  • 2.4        Data center sustainability metrics explained (PUE, WUE, CUE, ERF, REF, carbon intensity, SCI)                33
  • 2.5        Emissions accounting: Scope 1, Scope 2 (market- vs location-based), Scope 3              33
  • 2.6        Hyperscaler and colocator emissions and net-zero targets            34
  • 2.7        Water, land, grid and community impacts driving public scrutiny               35
  • 2.8        Motivations behind sustainability action: regulation, cost, reputation, grid access       35

 

3             THE GLOBAL POLICY AND REGULATORY LANDSCAPE FOR SUSTAINABLE DATA CENTERS     36

  • 3.1        Overview: from voluntary pledges to binding regulation    36
  • 3.2        A taxonomy of policy instruments (efficiency mandates, reporting/disclosure, energy labels, grid-connection rules, siting/moratoria, tax incentives, water rules, procurement/certification)      37
  • 3.3        European Union           38
    • 3.3.1    Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) reporting scheme and the European database/dashboard 38
    • 3.3.2    Data Centre Energy Efficiency Package and the EU rating scheme            38
    • 3.3.3    Minimum Performance Standards for data centers              39
    • 3.3.4    Cloud and AI Development Act — capacity tripling conditioned on energy/water efficiency and circularity         39
    • 3.3.5    EU Taxonomy and the Code of Conduct for Data Centre Energy Efficiency           39
    • 3.3.6    Germany, France, Ireland      40
    • 3.3.7    Nordics and district-heating integration      40
  • 3.4        United States 40
    • 3.4.1    Federal legislative activity (data center energy/reporting bills; EIA data collection)        40
    • 3.4.2    State-level reporting and disclosure legislation (annotated survey)          40
    • 3.4.3    From moratoria to regulation: the local-permitting pivot  41
    • 3.4.4    State tax incentives and their sustainability conditions (Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, Washington)               42
    • 3.4.5    Grid interconnection and "bring-your-own-power" responses      42
  • 3.5        China  42
    • 3.5.1    National "Green Data Center" Action Plan 42
    • 3.5.2    Special Action Plan for Green & Low-Carbon Development of Data Centers (PUE targets, renewable share)        43
    • 3.5.3    "East Data, West Compute" and the China cost/efficiency advantage   43
  • 3.6        Asia-Pacific    43
    • 3.6.1    Singapore — Green Data Centre Roadmap / DC-CFA mandate   43
    • 3.6.2    Japan — emerging data center regulation   44
    • 3.6.3    Other APAC markets (Malaysia, India, Australia)   44
  • 3.7        United Kingdom           44
    • 3.7.1    Ofgem grid-connection reform and the connections queue           44
    • 3.7.2    Critical National Infrastructure designation and planning               45
  • 3.8        Grid-connection policy as a cross-cutting theme  45
  • 3.9        Standards, certification and disclosure frameworks           46
    • 3.9.1    PUE/WUE/CUE as regulatory metrics            46
    • 3.9.2    EPEAT and the draft circularity criteria for enterprise data storage            46
    • 3.9.3    GHG Protocol updates: location-based and hourly matching       46
    • 3.9.4    ISO / CEN-CENELEC and industry codes of conduct          47
  • 3.10     Policy gap analysis and outlook: where regulation is heading 2026–2030            47

 

4             DATA CENTER ENERGY DEMAND, GRID STRESS AND SUSTAINABILITY BUSINESS CASE           48

  • 4.1        Global and regional electricity demand outlook (IEA "Energy and AI" scenarios)             49
  • 4.2        The power gap: interconnection queues and supply constraints 50
  • 4.3        Carbon intensity of grid power by geography            51
  • 4.4        Water use and water-stress exposure            52
  • 4.5        The cost, reputation and grid-access case for going green              53
  • 4.6        "Reality check": fossil fuels still dominate near-term power           54

 

5             SUSTAINABLE POWER GENERATION FOR DATA CENTERS             55

  • 5.1        Decarbonizing Scope 2: RECs, PPAs, clean transition tariffs, hourly matching  55
  • 5.2        "Bring your own power": hyperscalers as generators; microgrids and behind-the-meter             56
    • 5.2.1    Microgrid architectures and controllers       56
    • 5.2.2    Balancing engines and gensets (transition fuels, HVO, hydrogen-ready)               57
  • 5.3        Solar, wind and hydropower (LCOE, intermittency, footprint)        58
  • 5.4        Nuclear: conventional, SMRs and fusion    58
    • 5.4.1    Why SMRs for data centers; Gen III+ vs Gen IV designs     60
    • 5.4.2    Hyperscaler–developer partnerships and first deployments          60
    • 5.4.3    Restart/uprate of existing nuclear plants    62
  • 5.5        Geothermal and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS)     63
  • 5.6        Carbon capture (CCUS) on gas power for data centers      64
  • 5.7        Hydrogen fuel cells (PEMFC / SOFC)              64
  • 5.8        Batteries, BESS, thermal energy storage and long-duration storage (LDES)         65
    • 5.8.1    UPS and grid-interactive UPS              66
    • 5.8.2    Li-ion (LFP/NMC) for backup and primary power    66
    • 5.8.3    Redox flow and alternative chemistries (sodium-ion, zinc, sodium-sulfur, liquid-metal)            66
    • 5.8.4    Thermal energy storage and LDES for data centers               66
  • 5.9        Benchmarking: environmental, technical and economic comparison of power sources            67

 

6             ENERGY EFFICIENCY FOR DATA CENTERS 70

  • 6.1        Beyond PUE: thermal, electrical and IT efficiency 70
  • 6.2        Thermal management and cooling  70
    • 6.2.1    Air vs. direct-to-chip vs. immersion liquid cooling 70
    • 6.2.2    Thermal interface materials, cold plates, vapor chambers             73
    • 6.2.3    Immersion fluids and refrigerant GWP          74
    • 6.2.4    Waste-heat reuse and district heating          74
  • 6.3        Power efficiency (power supply, 800 VDC, distribution)    75
    • 6.3.1    PSUs, 80 PLUS and efficiency programs     75
    • 6.3.2    SiC and GaN power electronics         75
    • 6.3.3    800 VDC architecture and rack power delivery        76
    • 6.3.4    High-temperature superconductors (HTS) for power distribution               77
  • 6.4        IT efficiency (AI chips, memory, storage, interconnect)      77
    • 6.4.1    AI chip performance-per-watt             78
    • 6.4.2    HBM/DRAM and SSD/QLC NAND energy efficiency             80
    • 6.4.3    Co-packaged optics and silicon photonics for interconnect efficiency   80
    • 6.4.4    Hardware reuse and refresh cycles 80
  • 6.5        Efficiency mandates linkage (EU rating scheme, 80 PLUS, national programs) 81

 

7             SCOPE 3 DECARBONIZATION FOR DATA CENTERS             82

  • 7.1        Why Scope 3 dominates data center emissions    82
  • 7.2        Carbon credits and CO₂ removal      83
    • 7.2.1    Removal vs. avoidance; durable vs. nature-based                83
    • 7.2.2    DAC, BECCS, biochar and enhanced weathering   83
    • 7.2.3    Hyperscaler CDR portfolios and pre-purchases     83
  • 7.3        Low-carbon construction      84
    • 7.3.1    Green concrete and cement decarbonization         84
    • 7.3.2    Green steel      85
    • 7.3.3    Mass timber and environmental attribute certificates        85
  • 7.4        Embodied carbon in IT hardware (servers, GPU baseboards) and circularity/reuse        85
  • 7.5        Procurement policy and EPEAT circularity criteria linkage               87

 

8             MARKET FORECASTS, 2025-2037    88

  • 8.1        Forecast methodology and assumptions   88
  • 8.2        Data center power and electricity consumption forecast 88
  • 8.3        Data center CO₂ emissions forecast (Scope 2 and Scope 3)          89
  • 8.4        GPU TDP trend forecast          90
  • 8.5        Cooling market forecast by method (revenue)         91
  • 8.6        800 VDC / HVDC power forecast      92
  • 8.7        Adjacent green-technology forecasts            93
  • 8.8        Policy-scenario sensitivities (baseline / stringent-regulation / delayed-regulation)         94

 

9             COMPANY PROFILES                96

  • 9.1        Data center operators — hyperscalers & AI clouds              96 (9 company profiles)
  • 9.2        Colocation providers 105 (9 company profiles)
  • 9.3        Sustainable power generation & storage     114
    • 9.3.1    Nuclear / SMR               114 (14 company profiles)
    • 9.3.2    Geothermal / EGS       128 (2 company profiles)
    • 9.3.3    Fuel cells          130 (7 company profiles)
    • 9.3.4    Solar inverters & balancing power    137 (2 company profiles)
    • 9.3.5    Batteries, UPS & BESS (Li-ion)            139 (16 company profiles)
    • 9.3.6    Flow, sodium, zinc & alternative chemistries            155 (12 company profiles)
    • 9.3.7    Thermal & long-duration energy storage (LDES)     168 (18 company profiles)
    • 9.3.8    Storage enabling technology (BMS / analytics / deployers)             183 (5 company profiles)
    • 9.3.9    Carbon capture on power (gas CCS)              187 (5 company profiles)
  • 9.4        Energy efficiency — cooling & thermal management          192
    • 9.4.1    Cooling systems (direct-to-chip / immersion / rack)           192 (13 company profiles)
    • 9.4.2    Thermal interface materials & components              201 (17 company profiles)
    • 9.4.3    Immersion fluids & refrigerants         212 (3 company profiles)
    • 9.4.4    Airflow, fans & active-cooling components               214 (5 company profiles)
  • 9.5        Energy efficiency — power electronics, PSUs & power distribution           217
    • 9.5.1    Wide-bandgap devices (SiC / GaN) 217 (17 company profiles)
    • 9.5.2    Power supplies & DC power delivery (PSU / 800 VDC)        228 (2 company profiles)
    • 9.5.3    High-temperature superconductors (power distribution) 229 (1 company profiles)
  • 9.6        Energy efficiency — IT: compute, memory & optical            230
    • 9.6.1    AI accelerators (performance-per-watt focus)        230 (10 company profiles)
    • 9.6.2    Memory (HBM / DRAM / NAND)         236 (5 company profiles)
    • 9.6.3    Co-packaged optics / silicon photonics (interconnect efficiency)              239 (23 company profiles)
  • 9.7        Semiconductor-manufacturing sustainability (embodied carbon)            254 (3 company profiles)
  • 9.8        Scope 3 — carbon removal / CCUS 256
    • 9.8.1    Direct air capture (DAC)         256 (5 company profiles)
    • 9.8.2    Point-source capture & utilization    259 (4 company profiles)
  • 9.9        Scope 3 — low-carbon construction & materials  261
    • 9.9.1    Green steel      261 (32 company profiles)
    • 9.9.2    Low-carbon cement / concrete          282 (26 company profiles)
  • 9.10     Scope 3 — circularity & IT hardware reuse 298 (2 company profiles)

 

10          APPENDICES  300

  • 10.1     Glossary and acronyms          300
  • 10.2     Methodology and data sources (base year 2025; forecast to 2037)          301

 

11          REFERENCES 302

 

List of Tables

  • Table 1. Summary of major data center sustainability regulations by region, 2023–2026          24
  • Table 2. Sustainability metrics at a glance (PUE, WUE, CUE, ERF, REF, SCI)        27
  • Table 3. Forecast summary: power, electricity, CO₂, cooling, 800 VDC, SMRs, CDR, green steel          29
  • Table 4. Data center types compared (edge / colocation / enterprise / hyperscale)        31
  • Table 5. Country/region ranking by installed data center capacity             33
  • Table 6. Definitions of key sustainability metrics   35
  • Table 7. Leading hyperscalers/colocators: capacity, emissions and net-zero targets    37
  • Table 8. Taxonomy of data center policy instruments with examples       41
  • Table 9. EU EED reporting requirements summary               47
  • Table 10. EU rating scheme: A–F performance thresholds for energy and water                47
  • Table 11. US state data center reporting/disclosure legislation (annotated)        50
  • Table 12. US state data center tax incentives and sustainability conditions        51
  • Table 13. China data center PUE and renewable-energy targets by phase            53
  • Table 14. APAC data center mandates (Singapore, Japan) compared      55
  • Table 15. Grid-connection policy comparison (Ireland CRU, UK Ofgem, US ISOs)          57
  • Table 16. Certification and disclosure schemes (EPEAT, EU rating scheme, GHG Protocol)      60
  • Table 17. Data center electricity demand scenarios by region, 2025–2037         62
  • Table 18. Grid carbon intensity by major data center market         64
  • Table 19. SMR technologies and hyperscaler partnerships             72
  • Table 20. Battery / BESS / TES technology benchmarking for data center applications 78
  • Table 21. Benchmarking of electricity sources for data centers (LCOE, carbon intensity, availability, TRL)                79
  • Table 22. Cooling technology comparison (air, D2C single/two-phase, immersion)       82
  • Table 23. GHG emissions and efficiency by cooling method          83
  • Table 24. AC vs. 800 VDC architecture efficiency comparison     88
  • Table 25. AI chip performance-per-watt benchmarking    91
  • Table 26. Carbon dioxide removal methods: scale, cost and TRL               95
  • Table 27. Cement/steel decarbonization technologies and green premiums     98
  • Table 28. Embodied carbon by server component 99
  • Table 29. Data center power (GW) and electricity (TWh) forecast, 2025–2037  102
  • Table 30. Data center CO₂ forecast by scope, 2025–2037               103
  • Table 31. Cooling market revenue forecast by method, 2025–2037          104
  • Table 32. SMR / durable-CDR / green-steel / data-center BESS forecasts, 2025–2037 106

 

List of Figures

  • Figure 1. Global data center electricity consumption, historical and forecast, 2025–2037       23
  • Figure 2. Data center CO₂ emissions by scope, 2025 vs 2031 vs 2037    23
  • Figure 3. Representative Scope 1/2/3 breakdown for a hyperscale data center 24
  • Figure 4. Global policy timeline: key data center sustainability measures, 2020–2026 25
  • Figure 5. Regional regulatory-stringency heat-map              25
  • Figure 6. Impact vs. readiness matrix for sustainable data center technologies               28
  • Figure 7. Rack power density and GPU TDP trend, historical + forecast  32
  • Figure 8. Map of global data center hubs    34
  • Figure 9. Scope 2 (market- vs location-based) and Scope 3 emissions of leading hyperscalers             36
  • Figure 10. Global policy-instrument map by country/region           40
  • Figure 11. US federal vs. state regulatory-activity map      51
  • Figure 12. Grid interconnection queue lengths by region  58
  • Figure 13. Regulatory-stringency vs. data center growth by market           62
  • Figure 14. Projected data center share of national electricity demand (selected countries)     63
  • Figure 15. Supply–demand "power gap" outlook (US, EU)                64
  • Figure 16. Water usage effectiveness (WUE) benchmarks by cooling approach               66
  • Figure 17. Clean-power procurement models compared 67
  • Figure 18. Microgrid architecture for a behind-the-meter data center      69
  • Figure 19. SMR deployment outlook for data centers to 2037       72
  • Figure 20. Evolution of data center cooling technologies 83
  • Figure 21. Power limitation of cooling approaches by rack density            84
  • Figure 22. Data center cooling value chain 85
  • Figure 23. Timeline of SiC/GaN adoption in PSUs  89
  • Figure 24. Scope 3 emissions breakdown for a representative data center           94
  • Figure 25. Hyperscaler durable-CDR purchase volumes  96
  • Figure 26. Data center construction embodied-carbon flow          100
  • Figure 27. Global data center power forecast (GW), 2025–2037 102
  • Figure 28. Data center CO₂ forecast under three policy scenarios, 2025–2037 103
  • Figure 29. GPU TDP trend: historical + forecast, 2025–2037          104
  • Figure 30. 800 VDC adoption forecast, 2025–2037              106

 

 

 

The Global Market for Sustainable Data Centers 2027–2037
The Global Market for Sustainable Data Centers 2027–2037
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The Global Market for Sustainable Data Centers 2027–2037
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