While energy demand surges across the country, two of the fastest growing commercial and industrial sectors – airports and data centers – may be the perfect match for a novel energy system configuration to mitigate rising utility and operational costs.
In its recently published “Unlocking Synergistic Benefits of Colocation of Data Centers at Airports” paper, the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) postulated that airport data center colocation could alleviate operational burdens through shared infrastructure, land and energy usage. Colocation would mean placing data centers on or adjacent to airport-owned land. The airport would provide land, power access and connectivity, leaving the data center to build and run its facility as part of a land-use and infrastructure partnership.
Current estimates place data center development and operations seeing a massive increase in power demand by 2030, ranging between a 160 percent and 300 percent increase. While airport power demand isn’t as pronounced, electrified transit options are shaping up to have a transformative energy usage impact for airports.
Electrified aviation for advanced air mobility aircraft will need rapid charging infrastructure expansion to ensure aircraft are fueled, while additional loads are anticipated for passenger bus electrification. As passenger volumes grow, airports will need to sink energy usage to power operations by heating and cooling concourses, move baggage and support AI integration.
Airports and data centers share common goals and energy requirements. They both need round-the-clock reliable power 365 days a year, are economically influential and necessary for national security. Maintaining sustainable and resilient power availability means they both need to invest in infrastructure to meet rising demand.
Bringing these two industries together would align resource and logistic imperatives, enabling both industries to achieve a synergistic relationship that optimizes energy efficiency and reduces overall costs. Sharing resources yields mutual benefits, leveraging the backbone of existing high-capacity electrical infrastructure at airport-owned property as a foundation for data center construction that might otherwise be underutilized.
The document outlines five core benefits for colocation:
- Land use and zoning.
- Derisking infrastructure investments.
- Connectivity infrastructure.
- Energy security and resilience.
- Thermal energy and heat reuse.
Microgrids are seeing wider adoption as developers seek behind-the-meter, on-site power as viable alternatives to traditional grid interconnection processes. Hyperscale datacenters – typically used for industrial-scale operations – are requiring gigawatts of energy to run, which exacerbates issues with grid connectivity as operators find it more difficult to link their campuses with larger energy grids. As airports face similar hurdles, both industries are seeing microgrid solutions as a feasible way to upgrade facilities and operations.
Shared electrical management and generation would tick the boxes needed for rapid expansion and operations for the airport and data center industries. Rather than building separate high-capacity electrical infrastructure for separate campuses, resulting in redundant campuses taking up more space and costing more money, these industries can instead invest in consolidated electrical utilities to upgrade distribution and reduce costs.
Industry leaders have noted that aligned visions would benefit from shared resources. By collaborating on microgrid development, both industries would be able to sustain operations in the most energy efficient manner possible while keeping things local. If successful, the colocation vision could spread to other high-capacity energy industries, including critical minerals mining, manufacturing, electric vehicles and the building and industrial sectors to name a few.
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