Decarbonising AI: Renewable energy solutions for data centres
The exponential growth of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping digital infrastructure. From generative AI models to real-time inference engines, AI workloads are pushing data centre capacity to new limits. But with this growth comes a critical challenge for data centre operators: rapidly increasing energy consumption and carbon emissions.
In this article, we discuss three ways that data centre operators can incorporate renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions, cut costs and gain public trust.
How much energy do data centres use?
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global electricity demand from data centres could double by 2026 compared to 2024 levels. A major driver of this growth is artificial intelligence.
AI workloads, particularly training and inference, are highly compute-intensive. A basic AI search can consume up to 10 times more energy than a standard Google search (removing Google’s own AI service with ‘-ai’), largely due to the need for high-density GPU clusters operating around the clock.
Training a single large language model can use hundreds of megawatt-hours of electricity. When scaled across thousands of models and millions of daily inferences, the energy use, and resulting carbon footprint, becomes significant, especially when fossil fuels are part of the energy mix.
For data centre operators, rising energy consumption brings challenges that go beyond energy bills. Sustainability is a reputational and regulatory priority, with customers, investors, and other stakeholders increasingly demanding transparency around emissions and climate impact. Failing to keep up can risk losing business, damaging brand reputation and falling short of regulatory obligations.
How can data centres use renewable energy to decarbonise their operations?
To remain competitive and meet growing regulatory demands, data centre operators must develop robust decarbonisation strategies – by maximising power usage effectiveness (PUE), and by powering their operations with renewable electricity, 24/7.
On-site renewable energy and storage
While many data centres have limited rooftop space, often only enough to cover up to 5% of their energy use with solar panels, battery storage offers a powerful way to make a bigger impact. By storing off-peak, lower-carbon electricity, battery systems help you manage demand more intelligently; reduce your use of expensive peak electricity, and participate in grid flexibility schemes through our partner, AXEL.
At Good Energy, we deliver custom-designed solar and storage systems engineered specifically for the demands of data centre operations. We can deploy and manage battery storage systems from 100 kW to multiple MW, using only high-performance, durable components backed by long-term manufacturer warranties.
Our expert team handles everything, from DNO approvals to seamless design, installation, and ongoing maintenance, so you can focus on running a more sustainable, cost-efficient data centre.
Scalable, hourly matched micro-PPAs
Good Energy’s renewable power comes from a diverse and carefully curated portfolio of over 2,500 UK-based renewable generators. This uniquely balanced supply allows us to match our customer demand with real renewable generation in around 90% of hourly periods across the year – more than any other UK supplier has been able to evidence.
Our micro PPA strategy is built to scale with your data centre, evolving with your energy needs as you grow from initial deployment to full capacity. Whether you’re starting at 10% rack utilisation or scaling rapidly, our flexible model allows you to fix pricing based on current or forecasted volumes, and reforecast when needed.
Each adjustment produces a new weighted average price (WAP), locking in value while avoiding volume tolerance charges. It can complement a CPPA, by filling in the hours when intermittent generators aren’t producing, such as during low-wind periods, to ensure consistent, low carbon energy coverage.
Large business customers also benefit from our hourly energy matching insights, in partnership with Granular Energy. This innovation aligns your electricity consumption with actual renewable generation, hour by hour, 365 days a year, delivering a level of transparency and integrity that’s adopted as gold standard by global tech leaders like Google and Microsoft.
With Good Energy’s hourly-matched micro PPAs, data centres benefit from:
- Scalable, fixed-price renewable supply that adapts to energy growth
- Hour by hour emissions tracking to support Scope 2 and Scope 3 reporting, for you and your customers
- Dynamic pricing signals allowing data centres to reduce costs by aligning usage with periods of high renewable output.
- Enhanced transparency for ESG disclosures and customer reporting
Corporate Power Purchase Agreements
Corporate Power Purchase Agreements (CPPAs) are a proven mechanism for securing long-term access to renewable electricity. By contracting directly with a renewable generator, data centre operators can:
- Lock in price certainty over 10–15 years, mitigating wholesale market volatility
- Enable additionality, supporting the build of new renewable capacity
- Report emissions reductions with confidence, backed by traceable certificates
At Good Energy, we can support with structuring or sleeving CPPAs that align with your load profile, risk appetite and sustainability targets.
Whether you’re looking to hedge baseload demand or match peak loads with solar, we can help you to optimise your procurement strategy with a CPPA.
The downside of CPPAs is that they generally require the data centre to fix their power for a long period of time – typically 10-15 years. Data centres attract customers in part due to keeping their costs low, which makes signing up to a long-term power price risky – if power prices drop the data centre can quickly find it is not competitive and lose business as a result. This is something that Good Energy’s micro-PPA strategy helps to mitigate.
Why data centres are partnering with Good Energy
We’re already working with data centre operators in the UK to shape their procurement strategy, enabling them to grow while managing costs and reducing carbon. We deliver:
- Deep-green electricity from UK-based renewable generators
- Customised procurement from fixed price contracts to pass through and index linked, all backed by our micro PPAs,supporting both financial and sustainability goals
- Integrated on-site solutions including solar PV, battery storage, and EV infrastructure
As the UK’s only B-Corp certified energy supplier with in-house renewable tech deployment, we offer a vertically integrated solution for data centres looking to lead the AI era responsibly.
AI is here to stay—but its energy footprint doesn’t have to grow unchecked. By combining CPPAs with hourly matching, data centre operators can decouple growth from emissions, meet stakeholder expectations, and build infrastructure that’s as sustainable as it is scalable.
If you’re ready to operationalise your net-zero strategy, we’re ready to help.
