Ben Pritchard, CEO of AVK, discusses the launch of what is believed to be Europe’s first, large-scale, 110 MW on-site microgrid, developed to support early phase site operational resilience. Located within Pure DC’s Dublin campus, the on site energy system provides the opportunity for dispatchable capacity to support data centre operations during initial development phases, prior to full integration with the national electricity system as grid connection capacity becomes available. Over time, the campus is intended to operate as part of a hybrid energy configuration, combining grid supplied electricity with on site infrastructure designed to enhance flexibility, resilience and system stability.
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Edgar Van Essen, Managing Director, CCO and Partner for Switch Datacenters, outlines a dramatic decline in water use, new cooperative stakeholder models including green residual heat exchange networks, and a clear pathway to reach net-positive impact by 2040, as reported in the company’s 2025 Sustainability Report. With plans for six new builds and more, Edgar highlights how Switch Datacenters is growing its footprint to over 1GW capacity in the coming years while supporting local societies and economies and ensuring the minimum possible impact on the environment. He also explains how the data centre industry can transform its image by pursuing deep integration with local communities and value chains, through collaboration with municipalities, grid operators, and local stakeholders from the earliest planning stages.
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Katie Coulson, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Skanska Advanced Technology, discusses the many factors which need to be considered when delivering a data centre design and build, including the weather, available labour, power and water. Katie goes on to explain how modular, repeatable design and construction techniques and the harnessing of AI are helping to address the challenges of delivering new facilities as quickly as possible for the current AI boom.
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Adhum Carter Wolde-Lule, Director at Prism Power Group, highlights the fact that switchgear is fast becoming one of the biggest hidden constraints in UK (and elssehwere) commercial construction - with data centres absorbing enormous volumes of low voltage and medium voltage switchgear, along with AI workloads, hyperscale cloud expansion and government backing of digital infrastructure, demand has raced into a different gear entirely. Adhum explains that, as a result, switchgear is no longer a late-stage procurement item that can be slotted in once the design is largely complete. It has become a critical path risk that requires early design freeze and early engagement with manufacturers.
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Sean Burke, CEO at Enteligent, positions 800V DC to 50V DC as the ‘missing piece’ in AI data centre power design. While 800VDC distribution solves the upstream limitations of traditional AC infrastructure, converting it directly to a 50VDC server bus within the rack addresses the final conversion bottleneck at the server level. Sean explains that the combination of 800VDC facility distribution with rack-level 800VDC-to-50VDC conversion represents a complete, DC-native power architecture that aligns with the realities of modern data centre requirements.
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Keith Norman, Chief Marketing & Sustainability Officer of Lyten, explains the reasons behind the company’s acquisition of Northvolt’s battery assets in Sweden, with the site expected to resume operations and to deliver commercial cells in the second half of this year. Lyten is also establishing the Lyten Industrial Hub in Skellefteå, Sweden to co-locate battery manufacturing, data centres, and additional manufacturing activities - with EdgeConneX planning to acquire a data centre site from Lyten, with potential capacity of up to one gigawatt.
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Drew Gravitt is Senior Director of Distributed Generation & Microgrid Sales at Mission Critical Group (MCG) explains how the demand for data centres is surging due to AI and digital services and how this is placing increasing strain on existing power infrastructure. With many data centre developers facing long wait times for grid connections, Drew goes on to discuss the ways in which distributed generation and microgrids can help address the ‘time-to-power’ problem.
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Ryan Parker, Phononic's President & COO, discusses the data centre thermal management challenge, the company’s GPU HBM cooling solution and introduces the idea of Thermal Fabric, a real-time thermal control platform that transforms cooling from a reactive cost centre into a system level intelligence layer without the instability tax.
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Thiri Shwesin Aung, founder and CEO of Nyxium, discusses how she and co-founder, Paul Seurin, have built an agentic AI platform that helps energy and infrastructure developers decide where projects are most likely to get approved and built, before months of time and millions in development costs are committed – set against a background where permitting and siting, not capital or technology, are increasingly determining what actually gets built as AI-driven data centre demand continues to increase.
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Aleksandar Grbić, Global Data Center Solutions Manager, Hitachi Energy, discusses how the electricity grid must evolve to handle soaring demand from AI data centres. Grid integration and grid resilience have never been more critical as unprecedented digital demand accelerates. Alek shares insights into how the data centre and power landscape is shifting and how Hitachi Energy is helping to address these challenges.
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Laura Allwood, now a fully qualified Project Manager at Arcadis, outlines her journey from Apprentice Project Manager to her current role - along the way obtaining a degree in Construction Management and specialising in the data centre sector.
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Omer Wilson, Chief Marketing Officer of the Start Campus, explains why Start Campus and EDP have signed a strategic partnership marking their shared intention to accelerate next-generation, renewable-powered data centre projects in Portugal, with potential expansion to other markets. The collaboration brings together large-scale digital infrastructure and renewable energy leadership to unlock investment, strengthen system resilience, and position Portugal as a leading hub for sustainable digital growth, fuelled by the current AI explosion.
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Phil Cullerton, VP Services EMEA at Vertiv, explains why services will define the future of the data centre. The future of the data centre is not just about who builds fastest, it is about who operates best. And in this evolving landscape of digital transformation / AI density, tightening regulation, stretched supply chains and rising expectations, digital infrastructure services are the differentiator. If you are an operator, the question is no longer whether to invest in services, it is whether you can afford not to.
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Wannie Park, CEO/founder of LG NOVA-backed PADO, an intelligent energy orchestration platform for data centres, discusses the power consumption pressures of the data centre sector, with renewables offering a way forward - but many data centres don't know how to effectively manage and embed them into existing infrastructure. Wannie explains the technical challenges that come with renewable integration, why investing in new buildout is not sustainable long-term, and best practices for data centres to operate within existing energy constraints amid slow-moving AI regulation and consumer concern.
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Mary-Ann Clarke, AECOM’s Director of Data Centre Delivery, believes that developers, utilities, planners and government need to work together to accelerate investment in grid reinforcement and smart energy systems and strengthen engagement with communities to secure social licence for continued data centre growth – alongside recognising the strategic importance of data centres to the national economy and ensuring policy keeps pace with the scale and urgency of demand.
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