The combined electricity consumption of global DCs is now larger than most national electricity demands because of the hyper-exponential growth of digitalised services. A sustainable and emission free method of powering this remarkable growth is by deploying Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). SMRs are designed to last over 4 decades, support long-term high-skilled local employment and offer a perfect platform for green growth.

A DC and SMR partnership can enable the DC sector to shape 21st century’s clean energy infrastructure by acting as the anchor around which communities and industrial clusters grow, enable economic growth, meaningful and long-term employment and acceleration of the Net Zero Carbon transition.  We explore this unique partnership through a case study using an integrated deployment plan for SMRs and DCs within a microgrid. The guiding principles are scalability and efficiency, exploiting synergies between growth phases, green job creation and stable and clean energy supply over a long-time horizon.