10 December 2025

The Renewable Energy Association (REA), a UK-based non-profit trade organisation, has launched its new Data Centre Coalition to drive the development of clean, scalable power sources for the UK’s data centre industry and to shape relevant policy frameworks.

The coalition aims to foster investable clean-power models, establish an integrated national planning approach, create policy certainty, and provide evidence-based input to government and regulators.

The coalition’s founding members include industry players such as Enfinium, Greenscale, Apatura, and Clarke Energy.

“With 400 members, we recognised the need to act at this pivotal moment. The UK is competing globally to attract data centre investment and meet the sector’s rapidly rising energy demand while addressing broader sustainability challenges. Our Data Centre Coalition gives us the collective strength to engage directly with government decision-makers, ensuring that policies are informed by the expertise of those delivering the infrastructure vital to the UK’s digital and economic ambitions,” said REA CEO Trevor Hutchings.

The UK is positioning itself as a leading hub for data centres and artificial intelligence innovation. However, recent reports project that the country’s data centre electricity demand could increase by 200-600% between 2025 and 2050. Concerns remain over whether the UK’s current generation capacity and grid infrastructure can support such exponential growth.

National Grid, the UK’s transmission operator, has reported a surge in data centre connection requests, which now account for over half of the 19GW of load seeking connection by 2031. Projections indicate that data centres could consume up to 9% of the country’s electricity demand by 2035, compared to 2.6% today.

Last year, the UK government’s National Energy System Operator (Neso) released the Clean Power 2030 report, outlining a pathway to develop a fully integrated, low-carbon power system by that year capable of supporting a fourfold increase in data centre energy use. The report envisions offshore wind making up over half of the UK’s electricity generation, with solar contributing nearly 30%. It also highlights other low-carbon technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) to enhance system resilience. Despite these plans, questions remain about whether renewables alone can provide a reliable backbone for the energy system.

To ensure baseload capacity, the UK has increased investment in nuclear power. Notably, Rolls-Royce is developing a 470MW small modular reactor at Wylfa in Wales, marking the UK’s first site dedicated to this type of advanced nuclear technology, which promises to provide a reliable, low-carbon energy source to support future data centre growth.