Guides
186 plain-English guides to powering data centers and remote sites beyond the grid: behind-the-meter generation, gas turbines and engines, flare gas, microgrids, batteries, nuclear, cooling and water, interconnection rules, edge sites and what it all costs.
186 guides
All guides
Building and Costs
How Much Land Does a Data Center Need? – Acres per MW
Building and Costs
What Is Powered Land? – Why Sites With Power Sell at a Premium
AI Power Demand
Why Do Data Center Power Forecasts Disagree? – How to Read Them
Building and Costs
How to Read a Data Center Announcement – MW, Phases and What Gets Built
Grid and Policy
How Do Large Loads Affect Grid Reliability? – What NERC Is Watching
AI Power Demand
How Are Hyperscalers Securing Power? – Gas, Nuclear and Grid Deals
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
How Is Battery Storage Used at Data Centers? – Backup and Smoothing
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
Will Small Modular Reactors Power Data Centers? – Timelines
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
Why Are Tech Companies Buying Nuclear Power? – Restarts, Uprates, SMRs
Building and Costs
How Are Data Centers Financed? – Leases and Project Finance
Grid and Policy
What Is Large Load Interconnection? – How Big Users Get Grid Power
Grid and Policy
How Does ERCOT Handle Large Loads? – Studies, Rules and Curtailment
Building and Costs
Data Center Site Due Diligence – Power, Water, Fiber and Permits
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
Can Geothermal Power Data Centers? – Enhanced Geothermal Explained
Grid and Policy
Do Data Centers Raise Electricity Bills? – What the Evidence Shows
Building and Costs
Is There an AI Data Center Bubble? – Stranded Asset Risk for Power
Behind-the-Meter Power
Why Do AI Training Loads Swing So Fast? – Grid and Generator Fixes
Natural Gas Power
Where Does Oklahoma's Natural Gas Come From? – SCOOP, STACK, Anadarko
Grid and Policy
Large Load Tariffs – Why Utilities Want Long Contracts
Behind-the-Meter Power
Why Data Center Siting Now Starts With Power
Building and Costs
What Is a Community Benefit Agreement? – Data Center Deals With Towns
Cooling and Water
How Much Power Does a Server Rack Use? – Rack Density Explained
Cooling and Water
How Much Water Does a Data Center Use? – Gallons per MW
Building and Costs
How Many Jobs Does a Data Center Create?
Grid and Policy
Which States Offer Data Center Tax Incentives? – How They Work
Behind-the-Meter Power
What Is an Energy Park? – Power and Compute on One Campus
Natural Gas Power
Why Are Data Centers Turning to Natural Gas? – Speed, Firm Power, Trade-Offs
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
How Much Does Battery Storage Cost per MWh? – Utility-Scale Prices
Building and Costs
3D Visualization for Energy Projects – Investor, Permit and Community Uses
Flare and Stranded Gas
Can Flare Gas Run an AI Data Center? – Scale, Uptime and the Math
Building and Costs
How Many Homes Could 1 GW Power? – Gigawatt Data Centers in Real Terms
Building and Costs
How to Present a Data Center or Power Project at a Community Meeting
AI Power Demand
How Much Power Do AI Data Centers Use? – From One Rack to a Campus
Building and Costs
How Much Does a Data Center Cost per MW? – Shell, Power, Cooling
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
What Is Long-Duration Energy Storage? – Beyond Four Hours
Natural Gas Power
Why Is the Permian Basin Attracting Data Centers? – Gas, Land, Limits
Natural Gas Power
How Much Natural Gas Does a Data Center Use? – Mcf per Day by Size
Natural Gas Power
How Much Does a Gas Turbine Cost? – $/kW and Why Prices Rose
Flare and Stranded Gas
EPA Methane Rules for Oil and Gas – What OOOOb Means for Flaring
Building and Costs
How Do Data Centers Get Zoning Approval? – Rezoning and Hearings
Natural Gas Power
What Is a Pipeline Lateral? – Getting Gas to a New Site
Natural Gas Power
Gas Turbine Lead Times – Why Orders Stretch for Years
Building and Costs
Why Do Communities Oppose Data Centers? – Noise, Water, Power
Natural Gas Power
Could Oklahoma Become a Data Center Power Hub?
Building and Costs
How Do Companies Choose a Data Center Site? – The Real Checklist
Building and Costs
What Is LCOE? – Levelized Cost of Energy in Plain English
Grid and Policy
Why Does Grid Interconnection Take So Long? – The Queue Explained
AI Power Demand
Is AI Getting More Energy Efficient? – Chips, Models and Cooling
Grid and Policy
How Does SPP Handle Large Loads? – Oklahoma's Grid Operator Explained
Grid and Policy
What Does Texas Senate Bill 6 Mean for Data Centers? – Key Rules
Flare and Stranded Gas
Who Owns Flare Gas? – Mineral Rights, Royalties and Gas Deals
Building and Costs
How Long Does It Take to Build a Data Center? – From Land to Load
Grid and Policy
Can Data Centers Do Demand Response? – Flexible Load Explained
Flare and Stranded Gas
How Bitcoin Miners Sell Flexibility to the Grid
Grid and Policy
What Is a Capacity Market? – How PJM Auctions Set Prices
Grid and Policy
Can Data Centers Connect Directly to Power Plants? – The FERC Fight
Cooling and Water
What Is a Coolant Distribution Unit? – The Heart of Liquid Cooling
Cooling and Water
CRAC vs CRAH – What Is the Difference in Data Center Cooling?
Behind-the-Meter Power
Why Are Power Transformers So Hard to Get? – Lead Times and Options
Behind-the-Meter Power
Can a Data Center Use Grid Power and On-Site Power Together?
AI Power Demand
What Is a Neocloud? – GPU Cloud Providers and Their Power Needs
Natural Gas Power
How Many MW Does a Gas Turbine Make? – Sizes From 1 to 500+ MW
AI Power Demand
How Much Energy Does an AI Query Use? – Per-Prompt Estimates
Natural Gas Power
How Do Gas Prices Affect On-Site Power Costs? – Hedging Basics
AI Power Demand
How Much Power Does a GPU Use? – TDP, Servers and Real Draw
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
Can Carbon Capture Clean Up Gas-Powered Data Centers? – Cost and Fit
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
How Do Data Centers Count Their Emissions? – Scope 1, 2 and 3
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
Can Fuel Cells Power Data Centers? – Solid Oxide Explained
Flare and Stranded Gas
Can Curtailed Wind and Solar Power Computing? – Flexible Loads
Behind-the-Meter Power
How Reliable Is On-Site Power? – Availability, Outages and Nines
Behind-the-Meter Power
What Is a Behind-the-Meter Data Center? – How It Works
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
Are Hydrogen Generators Ready for Data Centers? – Cost, Supply, Pilots
AI Power Demand
What Share of US Electricity Do Data Centers Use? – Today and Forecasts
Edge and Remote Sites
How Much Power Does Starlink Use? – Running It on Solar
Behind-the-Meter Power
What Is Bridge Power for Data Centers? – Running Until the Grid Arrives
Behind-the-Meter Power
How Long Can Data Center Backup Generators Run? – Fuel and Storage
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
How Much Land Does a Solar Farm Need per MW?
Grid and Policy
What Is a Power Purchase Agreement? – PPAs for Large Energy Users
Edge and Remote Sites
Is Starlink Good Enough for Oil and Gas Sites?
Behind-the-Meter Power
Can a Data Center Run Completely Off-Grid? – What It Takes
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
What Is 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy? – Hourly Matching Explained
Edge and Remote Sites
How Do You Secure a Remote Industrial Site? – OT Security Basics
Building and Costs
How Much Electricity Does a Data Center Use? – kW to TWh
Natural Gas Power
What Is an Aeroderivative Gas Turbine? – Jet Engines Making Power
Behind-the-Meter Power
What Does a Microgrid Controller Do? – Keeping Power Stable
Natural Gas Power
Firm Gas Supply – How Power Plants Make Sure the Fuel Shows Up
Edge and Remote Sites
How Are Cell Towers Powered Off-Grid?
Cooling and Water
What Is Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling? – Why AI Racks Need It
Behind-the-Meter Power
How Does an Automatic Transfer Switch Work at a Data Center?
Natural Gas Power
What Are Mobile Gas Turbines? – Trailer-Mounted Power Explained
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
What Is a Microreactor? – Nuclear Power for Remote Sites
Edge and Remote Sites
How Big a Solar and Battery System Does an Off-Grid Site Need?
Natural Gas Power
Can LNG or CNG Power a Remote Site? – The Virtual Pipeline
Natural Gas Power
Why Do Waha Gas Prices Go Negative? – What It Means for Power
Building and Costs
What Is a Data Center? – Power, Cooling and Connectivity Basics
Grid and Policy
Why Can't the Grid Just Add More Power Lines? – Permits, Cost, Time
Edge and Remote Sites
Edge AI on Remote Industrial Sites – Uses, Hardware and Power
Flare and Stranded Gas
Flaring vs Venting – Which Is Worse for Methane Emissions?
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
What Is Renewable Natural Gas? – RNG and Landfill Gas for Power
Behind-the-Meter Power
What Is Black Start Capability? – Restarting Power From Zero
Flare and Stranded Gas
Why Does North Dakota Flare So Much Gas? – The Bakken Story
Flare and Stranded Gas
How Is Flare Gas Measured? – Meters, Estimates and Reporting
Flare and Stranded Gas
How Texas Regulates Flaring – Railroad Commission Permits Explained
Cooling and Water
How Warm Can a Data Center Run? – ASHRAE Thermal Guidelines
Cooling and Water
How Does Evaporative Cooling Work in Data Centers? – Water vs Energy
Cooling and Water
Can Data Center Waste Heat Be Reused? – Real Options and Limits
Building and Costs
What Is a Modular Data Center? – Prefab, Containers and Skids
Behind-the-Meter Power
How Does Power Flow Through a Data Center? – Utility to Rack
Edge and Remote Sites
What Is Private LTE? – Cellular Networks for Industrial Sites
Building and Costs
Data Center Power Glossary – 100 Terms From BTM to WUE
Edge and Remote Sites
What Is a Micro Data Center? – Small Sites, Full Protection
Edge and Remote Sites
RTU vs PLC – What Is the Difference at a Remote Site?
Edge and Remote Sites
Why Does Satellite Latency Matter? – GEO vs LEO for Remote Sites
Edge and Remote Sites
Remote Monitoring for Generators – What to Track and Why
Flare and Stranded Gas
Is Bitcoin Mining on Flare Gas Worth It? – How Operators Do It
Behind-the-Meter Power
How Many Generators Does a Data Center Need? – Sizing the Fleet
Flare and Stranded Gas
Why Do Oil Wells Flare Gas? – Economics and Rules
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
Battery Storage Fire Safety – LFP Chemistry and NFPA 855
Building and Costs
What Does On-Site Power Cost? – Gas, Solar and Storage Compared
Building and Costs
Site Plan Renderings for Power and Data Center Projects – What Boards Expect
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
Wind, Solar and Storage Hybrids – Can They Run Off-Grid?
Natural Gas Power
How Does a Combined Cycle Power Plant Work? – Turbine, HRSG, Steam
Grid and Policy
Do You Need an Air Permit for On-Site Generators?
Cooling and Water
Is Immersion Cooling Worth It? – Single-Phase vs Two-Phase
Behind-the-Meter Power
What Does a UPS Do in a Data Center? – Batteries and Flywheels
Edge and Remote Sites
Remote Site Connectivity – Satellite vs LTE vs Private LTE vs Radio
Natural Gas Power
What Is a Gas Gathering System? – From Wellhead to Pipeline
Natural Gas Power
How Much Does an Industrial Natural Gas Generator Cost?
Behind-the-Meter Power
How to Design an Off-Grid Power System – A Step-by-Step Primer
Building and Costs
How Loud Are On-Site Generators? – Noise Limits and Fixes
Building and Costs
What Are Data Center Tiers? – Tier I to Tier IV Explained
Flare and Stranded Gas
How Much Gas Does a Bitcoin Miner Burn? – Mcf per Day per Machine
Edge and Remote Sites
Rugged Edge Servers – What Survives Heat, Dust and Vibration
Edge and Remote Sites
What Is SCADA? – How Remote Sites Report Back
Building and Costs
What Are the Types of Data Centers? – Hyperscale, Colo, Edge
Behind-the-Meter Power
How Do Generators Handle Data Center Load Steps?
Natural Gas Power
Dual-Fuel Generators – Running on Gas With Diesel Backup
Cooling and Water
Dust, Sand and Data Centers – Filtration for Harsh Sites
Flare and Stranded Gas
How Does Flare Gas to Power Work? – Waste Gas Into Electricity
Flare and Stranded Gas
How Does a Flare Stack Work? – Combustion Efficiency and Design
Edge and Remote Sites
What Is Edge Computing in the Oilfield? – Processing Data at the Pad
Behind-the-Meter Power
On-Site Power Generation Options – Gas, Solar, Fuel Cells, Storage
Flare and Stranded Gas
What Is Associated Gas? – Oil Wells and the Gas They Bring Up
Behind-the-Meter Power
What Is Switchgear? – Types for Data Centers and On-Site Plants
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
How Much Fuel Does a Solar-Diesel Hybrid Save at a Remote Site?
Natural Gas Power
What Is a Gas Supply Agreement? – Terms for Power Plant Fuel
Behind-the-Meter Power
N+1 vs 2N Redundancy – How Much Backup Power Is Enough?
Flare and Stranded Gas
What Is Stranded Gas? – Why Some Gas Has Nowhere to Go
Behind-the-Meter Power
How to Write an RFP for On-Site Power – Specs Vendors Need
Cooling and Water
How Do Data Centers Stay Cool in West Texas Heat?
Grid and Policy
Do Data Centers Need Water Rights? – Texas and Oklahoma Basics
Natural Gas Power
Gas Generator Maintenance – Intervals, Overhauls and Downtime
Cooling and Water
What Is an Absorption Chiller? – Turning Waste Heat Into Cooling
Behind-the-Meter Power
Prime Power vs Standby Power – What Generator Ratings Mean
Behind-the-Meter Power
What Is Energy-as-a-Service? – Who Owns and Runs On-Site Power
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
Can Solar Power a Data Center? – Panels, Land and Storage Math
Building and Costs
What Happens During Data Center Commissioning? – Levels 1 to 5
Cooling and Water
How Are Data Centers Cooled? – Air, Liquid and Everything Between
Behind-the-Meter Power
Power Quality for Data Centers – Frequency, Voltage and Harmonics
Flare and Stranded Gas
How Are Data Centers Built at the Wellsite? – Containers on the Pad
Solar, Storage and Nuclear
How to Size a Battery Energy Storage System – MW vs MWh
Cooling and Water
Can a Data Center Cool Without Water? – Dry Coolers and Closed Loops
Behind-the-Meter Power
Medium-Voltage Distribution in a Data Center – Gear and Layout
Cooling and Water
What Is WUE? – Water Usage Effectiveness for Data Centers
Building and Costs
What Is an EPC Contract? – How Power Projects Get Built
Edge and Remote Sites
What Is the Digital Oilfield? – Data From Wellhead to Office
Edge and Remote Sites
What Is LoRaWAN? – Low-Power Networks for Remote Sensors
Natural Gas Power
What Is Heat Rate? – The Efficiency Number Behind Every Gas Plant
Behind-the-Meter Power
What Is a Microgrid? – Island Mode, Controllers and Uses
Grid and Policy
Physical vs Virtual PPA – How Each One Works
Edge and Remote Sites
Solar Power for SCADA and Remote Monitoring Sites – Parts and Layout
Grid and Policy
Self-Generation vs Utility Power – Which Costs Less for Large Users?
Building and Costs
What Goes in an Energy Project Investor Deck? – Slides Developers Need
Natural Gas Power
Fuel Gas Conditioning Skids – What They Do and Why Engines Need Them
Natural Gas Power
Mcf to MMBtu – How to Convert Gas Volume to Energy
Natural Gas Power
How Do Natural Gas Engines Generate Power? – Sizes, Efficiency, Uses
Edge and Remote Sites
Edge vs Cloud – Where Should Remote Site Data Be Processed?
Grid and Policy
EPA Rules for Stationary Engines – RICE NESHAP and NSPS Explained
Edge and Remote Sites
Oilfield Power Generation – How Remote Pads Get Electricity
Behind-the-Meter Power
Behind-the-Meter vs Front-of-the-Meter – What Is the Difference?
Natural Gas Power
What Is Combined Heat and Power? – Using Waste Heat Twice
Natural Gas Power
Gas Turbines vs Reciprocating Engines – Which Fits On-Site Power?
Natural Gas Power
Is Wellhead Gas Good Enough to Burn? – Gas Quality and Conditioning
Building and Costs
How Much Does It Cost to Power a Data Center? – $/MWh and Bills
Cooling and Water
What Is PUE? – Power Usage Effectiveness Explained
Natural Gas Power
How Are NOx Emissions Controlled on Gas Turbines? – DLN and SCR
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