This summer has already produced three answers to questions the data center industry would have preferred to leave theoretical.
In May, PJM Interconnection—the grid operator serving data-center-dense northern Virginia—received emergency authorization from the Energy Department to curtail power to data centers because of “atypically hot mid-May weather conditions.” In France, temperatures of 44.3° C forced nuclear plants to shut down—the same plants Macron called the “heart” of France’s AI ambitions. And on Monday, Zurich Insurance disclosed that severe weather is now the leading cause of loss in its U.S. data center portfolio.
