Alternus and Hover Energy Partner on Microgrids to Meet Data Center, Commercial and Industrial Energy Demand
The expected long-term growth of microgrid deployment due to a spike in data center construction has convinced a transatlantic clean energy developer to expand its goals within the industry.
South Carolina-based Alternus Clean Energy and Dallas-based microgrid developer Hover Energy announced a new joint venture focused on projects serving data centers and commercial and industrial customers. Financial firms such as Goldman Sachs are forecasting as much as 47 GW of new data center capacity under construction through the rest of this decade.
The Alternus-Hover joint venture will utilize Hover’s microgrid portfolio featuring wind generators and energy control systems. Alternus will contribute its solar portfolio, project financing and development expertise, the company said.
“This is the future, and it is available today,” Hover Energy CEO Chris Griffin said in a statement. “What has been needed is a one-stop shop to allow companies to achieve net zero directly.”
Alternus and Hover first announced their strategic alliance in January. Once development begins on the microgrid projects, Hover will handle engineering, procurement and construction work, while Alternus will own and operate the microgrids.
The project pipeline already in development includes nearly 40 microgrids totaling close to 60 MW, with clients in the U.S., United Kingdom, Ireland as target markets. Alternus will own 51% and Hover 49% of the joint venture, according to reports.
Alternus CEO Vincent Browne said that the 60 MW microgrid project pipeline was expected to take two years but was realized in only five months.
“It is very clear that demand is exploding for on-site clean energy delivered through a distributed architecture—particularly within increasingly power-hungry data centers that now need more power than ever,” Browne said. “Alternus’ reach in the utility-scale solar power industry combined with Hover’s microgrid systems uniquely positions this joint venture to capture its share of this rapidly expanding segment of the power market.”
The rise in cloud-based computing and artificial intelligence modeling training promises positive but challenging load growth for utilities that only five years ago were predicting flat demand in coming years. Earlier this month, American Electric Power reported 15 GW of new load commitment from data centers customers through the end of the decade.
Other utilities are revealing similar rising demand projections. Dominion Energy has handled the explosion in data center development within northern Virginia, while Pacific Gas & Electric and others are scrambling to meet the exponential demand at a time when utility-scale power generation is leveling out and distributed energy resources such as solar are expanding.
Many see this imbalance as a huge growth opportunity for on-site power and microgrids. Researcher Global Market Insights estimated the value of the global microgrid sector at about $18 billion for 2023 and anticipates a 20% annual growth rate to more than $100 billion by 2032.
In April, Alternus Clean Energy revealed another joint venture with developer Acadia Energy to focus on 200 MW in microgrid projects for New York state.
Other acquisitions and joint ventures highlighting the optimism around microgrid growth includes power generator firm Generac’s deal to buy Ageto Energy and Bloom Energy’s agreement with data center developer CoreWeave to bring fuel-cell power for a project in Illinois.
Software technology provider Xendee and Schneider Electric are partnering with linear generator firm Mainspring Energy in separate deals.
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