The researchers also made use of a database provided by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that the authors pointed out contains more than 11,000 locations worldwide, of which 8,472 have been detected to dwell outside of highly dense urban areas. The latter locations were then used to “quantify the effect of data centers on the environment in terms of the LST gradient that could be measured on the areas surrounding each data center.” Asking the wrong question Asked if AI data centers are really causing local warming, or if this phenomenon is overstated, Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst at Greyhound Research, said, “the signal is real, but the industry is asking the wrong question. The research shows a consistent rise in land surface temperature of around 2°C  following the establishment of large data centre facilities.” The debate, however, “has quickly shifted to causality: whether this is driven by operational heat from compute, or by land transformation during construction. That distinction matters scientifically, but it does not change the strategic implication.” Land surface temperature, said Gogia, is not the same as air temperature, and that gap will be used to challenge the findings. “But dismissing the signal on that basis would be a mistake,” he noted. “Data centers concentrate energy use, replace natural surfaces with heat-retaining materials, and continuously reject heat into the environment. Those are known drivers of thermal change.” He added, “the uncomfortable truth is this: Even if the exact mechanism is debated, the outcome aligns with first principles. Infrastructure at this scale alters its surroundings. The industry does not yet have a clean way to separate construction impact from operational impact, and that ambiguity makes the risk harder to model, not easier. This is not overstated, it is under-interpreted.” Location strategy must change But will the findings change

The coming shift to higher-voltage DC That internal power challenge led Simonelli to one of the most consequential architectural topics in the interview: the likely transition toward higher-voltage DC distribution at very high rack densities. He framed it pragmatically. At current density levels, the industry knows how to get power into racks at 200 or 300 kilowatts. But as densities rise toward 400 kilowatts and beyond, conventional AC approaches start to run into physical limits. Too much cable, too much copper, too much conversion equipment, and too much space consumed by power infrastructure rather than GPUs. At that point, he said, higher-voltage DC becomes attractive not for philosophical reasons, but because it reduces current, shrinks conductor size, saves space, and leaves more room for revenue-generating compute. “It is again a paradigm shift,” Simonelli said of DC power at these densities. “But it won’t be everywhere.” That is probably right. The transition will not be universal, and the exact thresholds will evolve. But his underlying point is powerful. As rack densities climb, electrical architecture starts to matter not only for efficiency and reliability, but for physical space allocation inside the rack. Put differently, power distribution becomes a compute-enablement issue. Distance between accelerators matters, too. The closer GPUs and TPUs can be kept together, the better they perform. If power infrastructure can be compacted, more of the rack can be devoted to dense compute, improving the economics and performance of the system. That is a strong example of how AI is collapsing traditional boundaries between facility engineering and compute architecture. The two are no longer cleanly separable. Gas now, renewables over time On onsite power, Simonelli was refreshingly direct. If the goal is dispatchable onsite generation at the scale now being contemplated for AI facilities, he said, “there really isn’t an alternative

Renewables can reduce carbon intensity, but they cannot independently meet the need for continuous, multi-gigawatt firm capacity without large-scale storage and balancing resources. For developers targeting guaranteed availability within this decade, natural gas remains the most readily deployable option, despite the political and environmental tradeoffs it introduces. AEP and the Cost Allocation Model If the generation plan explains the engineering logic, the AEP structure speaks to the political one. At the center is one of the most contested questions in the data center market: who pays for the transmission and grid upgrades required to serve large new loads? Utilities, regulators, consumer advocates, and large-load customers are increasingly divided on this issue. Data center developers point to economic development benefits, including jobs and tax revenue. Consumer advocates counter that residential ratepayers should not subsidize infrastructure built primarily to serve hyperscale demand. The Ohio arrangement is being positioned as a response to that conflict. DOE states that SB Energy and AEP Ohio are partnering on $4.2 billion in new transmission infrastructure, with SB Energy committing to fund those investments rather than passing costs through to ratepayers. AEP has echoed that position, indicating the structure is intended to avoid upward pressure on transmission rates for Ohio customers. Whether that outcome holds will depend on regulatory review and execution. But the structure itself is significant. It frames a model in which large-load developers directly fund the transmission infrastructure required to support their projects, rather than relying on broader cost recovery mechanisms. That makes the project more than a construction milestone. It positions it as a potential policy template. If validated, this approach could influence how utilities and regulators across the U.S. address cost allocation for AI-scale infrastructure, particularly as similar disputes intensify in constrained grid regions. Why 765-kV Transmission Signals Scale AEP says the

Matt Vincent is Editor in Chief of Data Center Frontier, where he leads editorial strategy and coverage focused on the infrastructure powering cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the digital economy. A veteran B2B technology journalist with more than two decades of experience, Vincent specializes in the intersection of data centers, power, cooling, and emerging AI-era infrastructure. Since assuming the EIC role in 2023, he has helped guide Data Center Frontier’s coverage of the industry’s transition into the gigawatt-scale AI era, with a focus on hyperscale development, behind-the-meter power strategies, liquid cooling architectures, and the evolving energy demands of high-density compute, while working closely with the Digital Infrastructure Group at Endeavor Business Media to expand the brand’s analytical and multimedia footprint. Vincent also hosts The Data Center Frontier Show podcast, where he interviews industry leaders across hyperscale, colocation, utilities, and the data center supply chain to examine the technologies and business models reshaping digital infrastructure. Since its inception he serves as Head of Content for the Data Center Frontier Trends Summit. Before becoming Editor in Chief, he served in multiple senior editorial roles across Endeavor Business Media’s digital infrastructure portfolio, with coverage spanning data centers and hyperscale infrastructure, structured cabling and networking, telecom and datacom, IP physical security, and wireless and Pro AV markets. He began his career in 2005 within PennWell’s Advanced Technology Division and later held senior editorial positions supporting brands such as Cabling Installation & Maintenance, Lightwave Online, Broadband Technology Report, and Smart Buildings Technology. Vincent is a frequent moderator, interviewer, and keynote speaker at industry events including the HPC Forum, where he delivers forward-looking analysis on how AI and high-performance computing are reshaping digital infrastructure. He graduated with honors from Indiana University Bloomington with a B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing and lives in southern New Hampshire with

For the fourth installment of DCF’s Executive Roundtable for the First Quarter of 2026, we turn to a question that increasingly sits alongside power and capital as a defining constraint. Credibility. As AI-driven data center development accelerates, public scrutiny is rising in parallel. Communities, regulators, and policymakers are taking a closer look at the industry’s footprintin terms of its energy consumption, its land use, and its broader impact on local infrastructure and ratepayers. What was once a relatively low-profile sector has become a visible and, at times, contested presence in regional economies. This shift reflects the sheer scale of the current build cycle. Multi-hundred-megawatt and gigawatt campuses are no longer theoretical in any sense. They are actively being proposed and constructed across key markets. With that scale comes heightened expectations around transparency, accountability, and tangible community benefit. At the same time, the industry faces a more complex regulatory and political landscape. Questions around grid capacity, rate structures, environmental impact, and economic incentives are increasingly being debated in public forums, from state utility commissions to local zoning boards. In this environment, the ability to secure approvals is no longer assured, even in historically favorable markets. The concept of a “social license to operate” has therefore moved to the forefront. Beyond technical execution, developers and operators must now demonstrate that AI infrastructure can be deployed in a way that aligns with community priorities and delivers shared value. In this roundtable, our panel of industry leaders explores what will define that credibility in the years ahead and what the data center industry must do to sustain its momentum in an era of growing public scrutiny.

In honor of this year’s International Data Center Day 2026 (Mar 25), Data Center Frontier presents a forward-looking vision of what the next era of digital infrastructure education—and imagination—could become. As the media partner of 7×24 Exchange, DCF is committed to elevating both the technical rigor and the human story behind the systems that power the AI age. What follows is not reportage, but a plausible future: a narrative exploration of how the next generation might learn to build, operate, and ultimately redefine data centers—from tabletop scale to lunar megacampuses. International Data Center Day, 2030 The Little Grid That Could They called it “Build the Cloud.” Which, to the adults in the room, sounded like branding. To the kids, it sounded literal. On a gymnasium floor somewhere in suburban Ohio (though it could just as easily have been Osaka, or Rotterdam, or Lagos) thirty-two teams of middle school students crouched over sprawling tabletop worlds the size of model train layouts. Only these weren’t towns with plastic trees and HO-scale diners. These were data centers. Tiny ones. Living ones. Or trying to be. Each team had been given the same kit six weeks earlier: modular rack frames no taller than a juice box, fiber spools thin as thread, micro solar arrays, a handful of millimeter-scale wind turbines, and a small fleet of programmable robotic “operators”—wheeled, jointed, blinking with LED status lights. The assignment had been deceptively simple: Design, build, and operate a self-sustaining data center campus. Then make it come alive. Now it was International Data Center Day, 2030, and the judging had begun. The Sound of Small Machines Thinking If you stood at the edge of the gym and closed your eyes, it didn’t sound like a science fair. It sounded like… something else. A low hum of micro-inverters stepping