Datacenters that don’t have their own power supplies will fail: Gartner
Summary
Gartner warns that the current boom in AI-driven capacity demand is outpacing traditional grid expansion, leaving many new datacentres at risk of insufficient electricity supply. The analyst firm predicts a rapid shift to on-site power generation: by 2028 only 40% of new datacentres will rely solely on the grid, and by 2036 a significant share will use on-site clean technologies not yet commercially mature.
Gartner highlights hydrogen fuel cells (today still dependent on fossil-derived hydrogen), small modular reactors and even future fusion deals as potential on-site sources. The firm advises tenants to demand clear power provisioning plans from operators and notes that early adopters of new clean-generation tech will face higher initial costs that will likely be passed to customers.
Key Points
- Gartner report: AI-driven datacentre construction is outstripping traditional grid generation capacity.
- Prediction: by 2028, only 40% of new datacentres will depend solely on electricity delivered via the grid.
- By 2036, 40% of new datacentres could rely on on-site power from emerging clean technologies not yet widely commercial.
- Viable on-site options include hydrogen fuel cells today (mostly fossil-derived H) and, in future, small modular reactors or fusion-sourced energy.
- Datacentre operators will be early adopters of new clean power tech, but initial costs will be high and are likely to be borne by customers.
- Gartner recommends adding power sustainability and priority access to power to cloud and datacentre due diligence criteria.
Context and relevance
This matters to CIOs, cloud customers, and anyone buying SaaS or IaaS: energy availability will shape service pricing, SLAs and capacity access. As AI workloads push ever-higher power demand, reliance on the external grid becomes a liability. Operators that invest in on-site generation may secure capacity and resilience, but that security comes at a cost — which will filter down to tenants and end users.
The trend ties into broader industry moves: investment in small modular reactors, experiments with green hydrogen, and corporate agreements for advanced sources such as fusion. For organisations concerned with sustainability, resilience or predictable cloud costs, understanding an operator’s power strategy is now part of core procurement due diligence.
Author style
Punchy: Gartner’s forecast isn’t a gentle nudge — it’s a wake-up call. If you run workloads that care about uptime, price or carbon, this is worth digging into. The detail affects contracts, budgets and risk registers.
Why should I read this?
Short answer: because this changes who foots the bill and who gets priority when power is tight. Ask your bit-barn provider how they’ll keep the lights on — and what that means for your invoice. We’ve read the report so you don’t have to; if you rely on cloud or colocations, this is one to check now.