Digital Realty’s 2025 Playbook: How 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Is Redefining Data Center Power

Industry Adoption: How Digital Realty’s Pivot to 24/7 CFE Is Setting a New Bar for AI-Ready Data Centers

Digital Realty is aggressively moving beyond conventional renewable energy procurement to pioneer 24/7 hourly carbon-free energy (CFE) matching, a strategic pivot that redefines sustainability in the AI era. Between 2021 and 2024, the company’s approach was characterized by large-scale, portfolio-wide greening efforts. It focused on achieving broad targets through annual matching, with over 120 data centers matched with 100% renewable electricity by late 2023 and a global renewable portfolio reaching 1.4 GW. This strategy, while substantial, relied on traditional Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), which balance consumption over a year but lack temporal granularity.

The inflection point arrived in 2025. Facing “insatiable demand from AI and cloud computing,” which requires constant, reliable power, Digital Realty shifted its strategy from annual offsetting to real-time, verifiable clean energy consumption. This is evidenced by the launch of innovative 24/7 hourly matching programs for its data centers in Sweden and France in February 2025, followed by a similar program in Greece in July 2025. These initiatives, in partnership with energy leaders like Vattenfall and PPC, ensure that electricity consumption is matched with clean energy production on an hourly basis. This advanced approach offers a new level of transparency and credibility, transforming data centers from passive power consumers into proactive partners in grid stabilization. The opportunity is clear: by offering genuine 24/7 CFE, Digital Realty can attract premium, sustainability-focused hyperscale and AI clients who demand verifiable decarbonization, creating a significant competitive advantage in a power-hungry market.

Table: Digital Realty’s Strategic Capital Allocation for Sustainable Growth

Table: Digital Realty’s Key Alliances for Energy and Technology

Geography: Europe Emerges as the Proving Ground for Digital Realty’s 24/7 CFE Strategy

Digital Realty’s geographic focus for its most advanced energy strategies has sharpened considerably. Between 2021 and 2024, its activities were globally dispersed, with major PPA deals in Spain and France (347 GWh/year), Germany (120 GWh/year solar PPA), and Australia. This period was about securing large volumes of renewable energy wherever available to meet broad portfolio-wide targets. However, 2025 marks a strategic concentration on Europe as the crucible for its 24/7 hourly matching initiatives. The deliberate launches of these sophisticated programs in Sweden (with Vattenfall), France, and Greece (with PPC) signal that Europe’s mature and liberalized energy markets, coupled with strong regulatory tailwinds and technologically advanced utility partners, provide the ideal environment to pilot and commercialize this next-generation approach. In contrast, activity in the U.S. during the same period, such as the 70 MW hydropower PPA in Ohio and the 5.1 MW solar deal in Illinois, focuses on securing large blocks of clean power, including crucial baseload renewables, but has not yet seen the rollout of hourly matching programs. This geographic divergence highlights a key risk: while Europe proves the concept, the ability to replicate this 24/7 CFE model in less-integrated or regulated grid environments like those in parts of the U.S. and emerging APAC markets remains a critical, unproven challenge.

Technology Maturity: From Annual Offsets to Commercialized Hourly Matching

The evolution of Digital Realty’s energy procurement strategy demonstrates a clear and rapid maturation of its approach to decarbonization. During the 2021–2024 period, the dominant technology was annual REC matching, a commercially scaled but technically unsophisticated method. The focus was on securing large-scale PPAs and green tariffs to achieve milestones like 66% renewable energy usage and matching over 120 data centers with 100% renewables on an annual basis. While effective for headline targets, this method is “often-criticized” for its lack of temporal correlation, meaning it doesn’t guarantee clean energy is being used when the data center is actually consuming power.

The period from 2025 to today marks a decisive leap in technological maturity. Digital Realty has moved 24/7 hourly matching from a conceptual goal to a commercial reality. The launch of live, operational programs in Sweden, France, and Greece, in partnership with established energy companies like Vattenfall and PPC, validates that the underlying technology—platforms that can track and match generation and consumption on an hourly basis—is ready for deployment. This is no longer a pilot or demo; it is a commercial offering for live data centers. This shift from annual “offsetting” to hourly “true matching” represents a major validation point for the industry, enhancing the credibility of green claims and setting a new, higher standard for what it means to be a sustainable data center operator.

Table: SWOT Analysis: Digital Realty’s 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Strategy

Forward-Looking Insights and Summary

The data from 2025 signals that Digital Realty is not just participating in the energy transition but is actively shaping it for the data center industry. The year ahead will be defined by the scalability of its 24/7 hourly matching strategy. Market actors should watch for announcements of new 24/7 CFE programs beyond the initial European beachheads, particularly in the United States. The 70 MW baseload hydropower deal with Current Hydro is a critical signal, indicating a potential pathway to achieve true 24/7 CFE in North America by pairing intermittent renewables with constant hydro power. Gaining traction is the concept of the data center as a grid asset, as seen in the pioneering “power-flexible” AI facility partnership with NVIDIA and PJM. This initiative could offer an alternative or complementary solution to grid constraints, a threat that is clearly gaining steam and forced the company’s hand in Dublin.

Looking forward, the key question is whether Digital Realty’s sophisticated energy strategy can keep pace with its own aggressive $4-5 billion annual expansion plan. Success will depend on its ability to replicate the Vattenfall and PPC partnerships in other regions and secure the massive volumes of clean, and increasingly baseload, power required. Digital Realty has thrown down the gauntlet; its competitors must now decide whether to follow suit with credible, hourly-matched clean energy or risk being perceived as laggards in the race to power AI sustainably.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is 24/7 hourly carbon-free energy (CFE), and how is it different from Digital Realty’s previous approach?
24/7 hourly CFE is a strategy where a data center’s electricity consumption is matched with carbon-free energy generation on an hour-by-hour basis. This is a major change from Digital Realty’s pre-2025 approach, which relied on annual matching. Annual matching used Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) and Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to balance total energy use over a year, but it didn’t guarantee that clean power was being used at the exact time of consumption. The 24/7 method provides real-time, verifiable proof of clean energy use, offering far greater transparency and credibility.

Why did Digital Realty shift to a 24/7 CFE strategy in 2025?
The primary driver was the “insatiable demand from AI and cloud computing.” These high-density workloads require constant, reliable power, and customers are increasingly demanding verifiable proof of decarbonization. By pioneering 24/7 CFE, Digital Realty can attract premium, sustainability-focused AI and hyperscale clients, creating a strong competitive advantage in a power-intensive market. It transitions their data centers from simply being power consumers to being credible partners in grid decarbonization.

Where is Digital Realty focusing its 24/7 CFE efforts?
Europe is the initial proving ground for Digital Realty’s 24/7 CFE strategy. The company has deliberately launched its first commercial hourly matching programs in Sweden, France, and Greece in 2025, partnering with advanced utilities like Vattenfall and PPC. While the company is also securing large blocks of clean power in the U.S. (e.g., a 70 MW hydropower PPA), the sophisticated, commercialized hourly matching programs are currently concentrated in Europe’s mature and liberalized energy markets.

What are the main challenges facing Digital Realty’s strategy?
The biggest threats are physical grid limitations and the challenge of securing enough baseload renewable power. In key growth markets like Dublin, grid constraints have become so acute that the company had to resort to building a gas-fired power plant to ensure reliability, highlighting a gap between ambition and reality. A second major risk is the difficulty of replicating the successful European 24/7 CFE model in less-integrated or regulated grid environments in the U.S. and APAC, which is critical for scaling the strategy alongside its $4-5 billion annual expansion plan.

How is Digital Realty using partnerships beyond just energy procurement?
Digital Realty is forming key alliances across technology and grid management. It has partnered with NVIDIA, OQC, and others to launch the first Quantum-AI data center and is collaborating with NVIDIA and grid operator PJM to create a “power-flexible” AI facility. The goal of this initiative is to turn data centers into grid-stabilizing assets rather than just liabilities. Additionally, it is using AI software from partners like Coolgradient and Ecolab to optimize energy and water efficiency within its facilities, complementing its clean energy procurement with demand-side improvements.