Massachusetts Data Center Intel

Recent Massachusetts data center news

• Dec 1, 2025

  Hurricanes in 2024 led to the most hours without power in the United States in 10 years

  U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that U.S. electricity customers experienced an average of 11 hours of electricity interruptions in 2024, nearly twice the annual average of the previous decade.

  • Main finding: The EIA’s Electric Power Annual 2024 shows U.S. customers averaged 11 hours of interruptions in 2024; Hurricanes Beryl, Helene, and Milton accounted for 80% of hours without electricity, and interruptions attributed to major events averaged nearly 9 hours in 2024 versus nearly 4 hours (2014–2023). The report uses industry metrics SAIDI and SAIFI to characterize outages.
  • Details & state impacts: The report cites South Carolina averaged nearly 53 hours without power in 2024; Hurricane Beryl left 2.6 million Texas customers without power (July), Hurricane Helene left 5.9 million customers across 10 states (with at least 1.2 million in South Carolina), and Hurricane Milton left 3.4 million Florida customers without power; Hawaii averaged 4.4 interruptions, while several states (Arizona, South Dakota, North Dakota, Massachusetts) averaged less than 2 hours of interruptions.
• Nov 24, 2025

  How artificial intelligence can help achieve a clean energy future

  MIT Energy Initiative announced the Data Center Power Forum and emphasized AI as a research priority for the clean energy transition.

  • Main announcement/action: MITEI announced the Data Center Power Forum at its 2025 research conference to address growing data center power demand and highlighted AI and data-center energy as a research priority. The announcement was accompanied by ongoing MITEI-supported projects using AI for grid planning and operations, predictive maintenance, materials discovery (solar cells, thermoelectrics), fusion plasma modeling, robotics for maintenance, and research to reduce data-center energy demand (chip/algorithm and building design approaches).
  • Background and details: MITEI convenes researchers and member companies to implement these efforts; specific examples include AI for real-time grid control, EV and building demand flexibility, AI-guided material discovery workflows, and AI tools to speed regulatory and infrastructure analyses. Event details:
    • Date: May 2025
    • Location: MIT (MITEI annual spring symposium)
    • Agenda/subject: “AI and energy: Peril and promise” — convening academia, industry, government, and nonprofits to examine AI’s risks and benefits for the energy transition.
• Nov 7, 2025

  MIT Energy Initiative launches Data Center Power Forum

  MIT Energy Initiative has launched the Data Center Power Forum in September to convene MIT researchers and industry experts to explore solutions for powering rapidly growing data center electricity demand.

  • Forum launch and core actions:Data Center Power Forum launched to bring together MITEI member companies and MIT researchers to address data center power needs; background context includes global data center power demand expected to more than double by 2030 and U.S. data center consumption: 4% of electricity in 2023 rising to 9% by 2030 (Electric Power Research Institute). The forum will provide insights on energy supply, grid operations, built environment, market design and regulatory policy, and the Future Energy Systems Center is funding relevant projects; Deep Deka has been named program manager. Event context:

    • September (forum launch): agenda — Data Center Power Forum launch (time/location not provided)
    • May 2025 symposium: agenda — energy to power the expansion of AI
    • Fall 2024 Annual Research Conference: agenda — session “The extreme challenge of powering data centers in a decarbonized way.”

  • Background, participants, and research focus: MITEI has funded dozens of projects relevant to data center energy and currently sponsors more than a dozen data-center-related projects across MIT departments, focusing on low-/zero-carbon energy supply, electrical grid management, electricity market policy, energy-efficient processors and power electronics, behind-the-meter low-/no-carbon power plants, energy storage, AI for grid optimization, siting analyses, and cooling solutions. Industry engagement includes meetings with representatives from Google, Microsoft, Ferrovial S.E., and Exelon Corp., and MITEI events have included representatives from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

• Nov 6, 2025

  IonQ och schweiziskt konsortium lanserar det första stadsövergripande kvantnätverket i Genève

  IonQ has launched the Geneva Quantum Network (GQN), a city-wide quantum communications network in Geneva connecting academic, government and industry partners using existing fiber-optic infrastructure.

  • Main announcement: IonQ, together with UNIGE, CERN, Rolex SA, HEPIA and OCSIN, implemented the Geneva Quantum Network (GQN) using hundreds of kilometers of existing fiber-optic infrastructure; the architecture uses IDQ’s QKD and quantum detection systems, White Rabbit timing (from CERN), Rolex optical rubidium atomic clocks for precise timing, and HEPIA-installed distributed temperature sensors. Early experiments will distribute entangled photons between UNIGE, CERN and HEPIA to test long-distance quantum information transfer.
  • Background and other details: The initiative builds on IonQ’s recent partnerships including Q-Alliance with the Italian state, IonQ’s designation as primary quantum partner to South Korea’s national quantum center, and establishment of an Oxford EMEA office; company technical milestones cited include 99.99% two-qubit gate precision in 2025 and a goal to deliver 2 million qubits by 2030.
• Nov 6, 2025

  Soluna Announces Monthly Business Update

  Soluna Holdings announced October 2025 corporate and site-level updates, including a 3.3 MW hosting partnership with KULR at Project Sophie and operational progress on multiple Texas renewable-powered data center projects.

  • Main announcement & actions:3.3 MW hosting partnership with KULR Technology Group at Project Sophie; highlighted a $100M credit facility with Generate Capital; Project Dorothy 2 construction expected substantially complete with final construction on track for mid-November; 20 MW Canaan miner deployment expected in January; ~900 S19 XP miners expected deployed start of November; Project Kati 1 full 83 MW substation upgrade completed and Phase K1A 48 MW Galaxy containers/transformers/switchgear being received; Project Kati 2 executed an MOU with an HPC-experienced development partner, design/engineering expected to begin in Q4, and 50 acres land acquisition completed adjacent to Kati 1.
  • Background & additional details: Soluna published operating metrics (link provided), was featured in media (The Texas Tribune, Rio Grande Business Journal, Data Center Dynamics), CTO Dip Patel spoke at Harvard Business School Climate Symposium and other events, Project Grace completed concept microgrid design and signed an MOU to address power demand fluctuations that cause grid instability, Soluna is finalizing PPA/REP agreements for Ellen and Hedy and working on PPAs for Annie, Gladys, Rosa, and Fei; customer deployments include 48 MW across three partnerships at Dorothy 2 and 7 MW at Sophie; Kati 35 MW Hosting RFP process kicked off.
• Nov 4, 2025

  How MEP contractor Comfort Systems USA leveraged Lego-like model to drive 15x growth

  Comfort Systems USA reported 33% year-over-year revenue growth in Q3 2025 (press release published Oct. 23, 2025).

  • Main announcement: Comfort Systems USA released Q3 2025 results on Oct. 23, 2025, reporting 33% year-over-year revenue growth; CEO Brian Lane said, “Our amazing teams … have delivered financial results that far exceed even our recent outcomes.” The company said services account for ~15% of revenue and highlighted expanding volumetric modular construction capacity.
  • Background and details: Growth is primarily driven by data center and manufacturing MEP work tied to an AI infrastructure buildout and reshoring; MEP content is ~20% of cost in typical commercial offices vs 60–70% in data centers. Comfort Systems emphasizes volumetric modular prefabrication (built offsite and assembled onsite); between 2000 and 2020 the company’s share price rose from roughly $50 to $500. Other details: MEP work for schools doubled 2021–2024, office work grew 30–40%, Emcor targets Tier 1 markets while Comfort Systems focuses on Tier 2 markets, and labor availability/unionization affects cost dynamics. This article is an earnings/market analysis piece (Facilities Dive coverage).
• Nov 3, 2025 · Tech Xplore

  FSNet finds feasible power grid solutions in minutes, outperforming tried-and-true tools

  MIT researchers developed FSNet, a feasibility-seeking neural-network tool that finds deployable power-grid optimization solutions orders of magnitude faster than conventional solvers.

  • Main announcement: MIT (Priya Donti and lead author Hoang Nguyen) unveiled FSNet, a two-step framework that combines a neural-network predictor with a feasibility-seeking optimization step to ensure solutions meet equality and inequality constraints; the paper is open-access on arXiv (DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2506.00362) and will be presented at NeurIPS 2025 (Dec. 2–7, San Diego). The team reports FSNet cut solving times by orders of magnitude versus baseline approaches and sometimes produced better solutions for very complex problems.
  • Background and details: FSNet uses the neural network prediction as a starting point and an incorporated traditional solver to iteratively refine until constraints are satisfied; it is designed to be plug-and-play with different solvers, handle both constraint types simultaneously, outperformed pure ML approaches on feasibility, and the authors plan to make FSNet less memory-intensive and scale it to more realistic problems.
• Oct 29, 2025

  Beyond compute: Infrastructure that powers and cools AI data centers

  McKinsey & Company projects AI-driven demand for data centers and the related capital and design implications.

  • Main announcement/action: McKinsey & Company reports that AI-driven demand will expand data center capacity to 220 gigawatts by 2030 (a CAGR of 22%) and estimates $6.7 trillion in cumulative capital outlays worldwide by 2030 to meet compute demand; the report focuses on advances in power and cooling equipment and the need for codesigned systems.
  • Background and details: The article emphasizes that power, cooling, and IT components must be codesigned, highlights opportunities for equipment manufacturers to pursue vertical integration and provide end-to-end services (repair, maintenance, commissioning), and notes time to market as a key buying preference for data center operators.
• Oct 27, 2025

  GE Vernova Turbine Will Power New Indiana Gas-Fired Plant

  Maple Creek Energy LLC has secured an agreement to purchase a GE Vernova 7HA.03 gas turbine (single-shaft) and associated services for phase one of the two-phase Maple Creek natural gas-fired power project in Sullivan County, Indiana (agreement announced October 27).

  • Main announcement: Maple Creek (owned by ArcLight Capital Partners) will procure a GE Vernova 7HA.03 turbine for the first phase of a two-phase, >1.2 GW combined-cycle facility; the agreement includes existing permits, land control, and transmission interconnection, and equipment procurement is being funded by ArcLight Capital Partners. The project is being developed by Advanced Power with BDC Power Holdings (a Bechtel company) and expects commercial operation as soon as 2029. Bechtel Infrastructure & Power Corp. will serve as the EPC.

  • Background and implementation details: The plant will use lower-carbon natural gas and recovered steam in a combined-cycle configuration to supply the MISO grid; securing the GE Vernova equipment addresses long-lead equipment procurement risk. Additional context: Advanced Power has a broader portfolio of >12 GW thermal and renewable projects and >9 GWh of storage. Event note: Experience POWER (Denver, Oct. 29-31) — GE Vernova is a sponsor and Clive Nickolay will discuss the company’s technology on Oct. 29 at 4 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Convention Center hotel.

• Oct 6, 2025

  Storion Energy Appoints Sue Ozdemir as Chief Executive Officer

  Storion Energy has announced the appointment of Sue Ozdemir as Chief Executive Officer.

  • Main announcement: Storion Energy LLC appointed Sue Ozdemir as CEO to lead commercialization and scaling of Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRFB) components and vanadium electrolyte production; Storion is a joint venture between Stryten Energy LLC and Largo Clean Energy Corp. and has locations in Alpharetta, Georgia and Wilmington, Massachusetts.
  • Background and details: Ozdemir brings more than two decades of leadership in electric motors and batteries (former CEO roles at Exro Technologies, Wolong Electric America, and GE Power Conversion); Storion aims to supply power assembly stacks and competitively-priced vanadium electrolyte for utility-scale VRFB long-duration energy storage to meet demand from data centers and AI and other commercial/industrial users. Contact provided: Melissa Floyd, Vice President, Corporate Communications & Digital Marketing, Stryten Energy, phone 678.599.9887, email melissa.floyd@stryten.com.