Top 10 data centre developments from 2025
Yusuf Latief
Posted on: 20 December 2025
The top 10 developments for data centres and their power management you need to know going into 2026.
From meeting record-breaking power demand to new breakthroughs in cooling and on-site generation, 2025 has been a defining year for how data centres intersect with the energy system.
Here are the top 10 developments shaping the sector — and what they mean for grid stability, clean power and the future of digital infrastructure.
New Iberdrola joint venture to invest over €2bn into Spanish data centres
Iberdrola has created a new joint venture, Echelon Iberdrola Digital Infra, alongside Echelon Data Centres, which will invest more than €2 billion ($2.3 billion) in large-scale data centre developments across Spain.
The new European joint venture, which Iberdrola in a release says is the largest between an energy company and a data centre developer, has more than 700MW secured and a potential portfolio of 5,000MW.
Voltagrid and INNIO develop advanced energy solution to power data centres
Austria’s energy solution and service provider INNIO will deliver 2.3GW of power infrastructure, used by Texas-based Voltagrid in a scalable power solution, which will deliver power for one of the largest data centres in the world.
INNIO will supply the power infrastructure through 92 power packs, each comprising 25MW, in its largest order to date in power delivery.
Google selects Shell as energy portfolio optimiser in UK
Google selected Shell Energy Europe Limited (Shell) as its ‘24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Manager’ in the UK at the same time as the opening of its data centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, as part of a two-year £5 billion ($6.8 billion) investment in the UK.
The £734 million ($1 billion at the time) data centre will help meet growing demand for Google's AI-powered services across the country. More than 250 companies worked on building the facility.
GE Vernova partners with AWS on data centre scaling and grid reliability
GE Vernova and Amazon Web Services (AWS) in March have signed a strategic framework agreement on data centre scaling and onshore projects development commercialisation.
GE Vernova and signed a multi-prong strategic framework agreement across data centre scaling, grid reliability, power generation equipment and onshore wind commercialisation.
EPRI expands data centre flexibility initiative to Europe
EPRI, a global non-profit energy research and development organisation, announced the international expansion of its data centre for grid flexibility initiative, DCFlex, starting with participants in Europe.
DCFlex explores how data centres can support the electric grid, enable better asset utilisation, and improve interconnection and efficiency. The collaborative effort—with Google, Meta, NVIDIA, and various utilities as founding members—now includes France-based RTE and Schneider Electric, Amsterdam-based ING, and PPC Group, based in Athens, Greece.
LG's PADO takes a stab at AI-enabled energy management for data centres
LG Electronics unveiled PADO, focused on energy management for data centres, commercial and industrial facilities, and microgrids.
PADO is designed to leverage AI and ML technologies to orchestrate power, grid services and DERs to enable organisations to increase profitability, enhance resilience and improve operational efficiency.
E.ON partners on local power generation solutions for data centres
E.ON entered a ‘preferred partnership’ with Texas-based CyrusOne to develop solutions to overcome data centre grid capacity constraints in Europe.
The focus of the partnership is on unlocking future energy projects in Frankfurt – Europe’s largest data centre hub, which is currently constrained by limited grid capacity and connection delays – and more widely across the continent.
ABB to invest $110m in US to meet data centre and grid demands
ABB will invest a further $110 million in the US in 2025 to expand the R&D and manufacturing of its advanced electrification solutions to support expected growth in key industries, including data centres and the power grid.
Commenting in a release, said Morten Wierod, ABB’s Chief Executive Office: “Demand is being driven by key trends, from the surging power needs of AI in data centres, to grid modernisation and customers improving energy efficiency and uptime to reduce their costs.”
British Gas partners with heata on waste heat reuse for water trial
British Gas and heata partnered on an trial to explore how the use of a ‘virtual data centre’ can reuse waste heat from data processing.
heata’s model distributes cloud computing workloads to servers in homes. In a data centre, the heat generated during processing is a waste product, and energy-intensive cooling systems are required to stop the servers from overheating. To overcome this, heata created a ‘virtual data centre’ - a network of servers distributed in people’s homes.
DeepSeek: What tumbling energy stocks say about AI’s power consumption
Last but certainly not least, Chinese startup Deepseek was a force to be reckoned with at the start of the year, stunning markets and AI experts with a claim to have built its chatbot at a much cheaper cost than North American tech giants.
Additionally, claimed the company, its power demands are significantly less.
