Clean Energy Tech Deals Are Booming—Powered By Data Centers

Welcome back to Current Climate. The public pushback to data centers shows no sign of slowing, with New York announcing a moratorium on new such projects last week. Yet those power-thirsty facilities, blamed for jacking up utility costs for consumers, are also boosting financial deals for clean energy-related companies.

Globally, there were 153 cleantech-related public listings and acquisitions in the year’s first half, the highest level ever, according to data compiled by researcher Currence. Venture investment in the space surged 55% from a year earlier to $26 billion, the highest level in four years.

The uptick comes even amid less favorable policies for clean energy in the U.S. under the Trump administration, which pivoted aggressively away from renewables to promoting oil, gas and coal. Yet a rapid rise in energy demand driven by data centers and the declining cost of renewables, combined with successful IPOs for companies like geothermal power provider Fervo, which raised $1.9 billion, and nuclear reactor developer X-Energy, which snagged $1 billion, helped the space boom. Investment funds also flowed into nuclear power startups such as Inertia and Blue Energy in the first half, even though they won’t have commercial projects generating power for years.

Click here to read the orginal article from Forbes.