Scope 1, 2 and 3, 24/7 matching, claims, and the standards that define carbon neutral.
Every hyperscaler matches 100% of its electricity with renewables, and every one of them reported higher emissions this year. The rules behind that paradox are being rewritten. Here is the standard we think the industry should hold itself to.
The energy per AI query has fallen more than 30-fold in a year, and total AI emissions are still climbing. For CIOs and chief AI officers, the levers that matter most are model choice, workload design, and procurement.
French AI infrastructure company Sesterce announced a $10 billion campus on the former Kaipola paper mill site in Jämsä, Finland, with work to begin this year. Phase one is 200MW, with an expected increase to 600MW in phase two, and Sesterce aims for more than 1GW in Finland long term. The company says it has secured an anchor customer, and has committed to a $10 million community fund and a closed-loop liquid cooling system supplemented with harvested rainwater and recycled water.
Why it matters: Sesterce's pledge to enable one MW of new Finnish renewable generation per MW consumed within 10 years of operation, alongside reuse of existing grid and water infrastructure at a former industrial site, shows one approach to pairing large AI capacity with local power additions.
Source: Data Center Dynamics
Google announced a power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy that is expected to add 890 MW of nuclear capacity to the PJM grid before the end of 2032. The uprates cover 11 reactors at six operating plants in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Google says its total enabled new nuclear capacity from uprates and restarts now exceeds 1.5 GW, and Constellation will also deploy Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise in its operations.
Why it matters: Anchor-customer offtake on existing reactors is a faster route to firm clean capacity than new-build nuclear, and Google says other ratepayers bear none of the costs.
Source: Google sustainability blog
Gov. Abigail Spanberger's energy plan, unveiled Oct. 1, models four utility pathways to net-zero carbon by 2050 under 85% electricity demand growth, assuming most but not all proposed data centers are built. Each pathway adds 1.2 to 1.8 GW of solar per year, and three emphasize data center demand flexibility. The plan puts total future energy costs at up to $422 billion and suggests, based on Dominion data, that the tech industry could contribute $265 billion through 2050.
Why it matters: The plan lacks the force of law, but it may inform regulators weighing Dominion's gas plant proposals and data center reforms, so Virginia developers should expect cost allocation and demand flexibility to be part of the discussion.
Source: Canary Media
A coalition of 25 cities, counties and states sued the EPA on Thursday (Oct. 1, 2026) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit over the repeal of most of the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants. The group also filed a notice of intent to sue over the agency's failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing gas-fired plants, including peaker plants. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the final repeal in September and proposed rescinding all remaining power sector greenhouse gas standards.
Why it matters: Federal carbon rules for power plants are now in litigation, so builders and AI strategy leads relying on grid power should plan for regulatory uncertainty in the emissions profile of the generation serving their sites.
Source: Utility Dive
San Francisco startup NetworkOcean says it operated a single Nvidia H100 GPU powered by a 20kW solar array in a San Francisco Bay trial, running customer AI workloads. The customer has not been disclosed, and the claim of being first comes from the company. Its website outlines a possible 1MW array at sea next year and a target of up to 1GW of power for compute by 2030.
Why it matters: The trial is a single-GPU, company-reported proof of concept, but it shows developers are testing off-land, off-grid power as an alternative to multi-year grid connection timelines.
Source: Data Center Dynamics
Amazon has signed a power purchase agreement with Constellation for the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Maryland. The 20-year deal will see 190 MW of capacity added to the plant. The source does not give pricing, the delivery timeline, or which Amazon facilities the power would serve.
Why it matters: Long-term PPAs that fund new capacity at existing nuclear plants are one way for data center builders and AI strategy leads to secure firm, low-carbon supply, though terms and timing here are not yet disclosed.
Source: Data Center Dynamics
Apex Clean Energy and Meta have signed a power purchase agreement for Starling Solar, a 144 MW project in Gonzales County, Texas, which Apex says would not have been built without Meta's backing. Meta will claim all environmental attributes from the project, which can offset some of its gas-fired electricity in market-based accounting, while Meta also plans a 366 MW gas-fired plant to power a new El Paso data center. Starling is scheduled to begin operations next year, and Meta and Apex expect $27 million in tax revenue over the project's life and $26.3 million in landowner payments.
Why it matters: Renewable attribute claims from a PPA do not change the physical gas generation serving a site, so teams reporting market-based emissions should plan for scrutiny of both numbers.
Source: Canary Media
Governor Abigail Spanberger signed an executive order creating the Data Center Accountability Framework, which bans non-disclosure agreements for data center projects and calls for a review of the impact of backup generators, specifically diesel units. It also expedites development of data center noise regulations, creates a planning and community engagement toolkit for local governments, and sets up an AI task force. Her office describes it as the most comprehensive data center accountability effort in the US.
Why it matters: Developers in the world's largest data center market will no longer be able to rely on NDAs to keep project details confidential, and should plan for earlier public disclosure plus possible new rules on diesel backup generators and noise.
Source: Data Center Dynamics
Ameren filed its integrated resource plan with the Missouri Public Service Commission on Sept. 28, 2026. It calls for 10.6 GW of new gas, 3.6 GW of solar, 1.5 GW of wind, 2.4 GW of storage and 1.2 GW of nuclear, while gas rises from about 5% to 60% of the resource mix by 2045 and coal is retired. Ameren says it has committed to serving 2.8 GW of aggregate large-load demand by 2030, up from 1.5 GW in its 2025 expectations, with data centers a main driver.
Why it matters: Builders and AI strategy leads siting in Ameren's Missouri territory should expect a gas-heavy supply mix and large-load cost-recovery provisions, which Ameren says require large customers to cover the infrastructure built to serve them.
Source: Utility Dive
New Jersey's environmental regulator (NJDEP) said a Vineland, N.J. AI data center installed and operated 62 natural gas generators without required permits, and a state official announced the $1.07 million penalty on Sept. 22. The operator, identified as DataOne, disputed NJDEP's determination regarding the temporary generators but said it would apply for air permits and is communicating with regulators. The case is cited as an example of environmental compliance risks when operators use on-site power to work around constrained grids.
Why it matters: On-site gas generation can shift emissions and noise to the local community and, per an attorney quoted in the source, unpermitted operation can bring penalties and a possible injunction, so permitting needs a place in the development schedule.
Source: Data Center Knowledge
The Macquarie-backed firm will build a 30-inch intrastate pipeline to an unnamed US data center, targeting commercial operation in the first half of 2028. Neither the location nor the load size was disclosed.
Why it matters: Onsite gas is becoming the default workaround for interconnection delays, and every one of these projects adds Scope 1 emissions.
Source: Data Center Dynamics
The delegated regulation covers data centers above 500 kW and rates energy and water performance, waste heat reuse, onsite clean generation, and grid flexibility. It now faces a two-month scrutiny period in Parliament and Council, with the first labels expected in 2027. The Commission projects EU data center electricity use rising from 68 TWh in 2024 to 114 TWh by 2030.
Why it matters: EU operators move from disclosing data to being publicly graded, and customers will start using those grades in procurement.
Source: European Commission
