Deloitte: Renewables, Microgrid Buys Target Data Centers
- The Deloitte report indicates that a significant majority of renewable energy and microgrid acquisitions are now driven by the demand from data centers.
- The report highlights that data centers are increasingly seeking to secure their power supply through these acquisitions, aiming for greater reliability and sustainability.
- While specific numbers for the percentage of acquisitions are not provided in the prompt, the trend is described as 'most' and 'increasingly focused', suggesting a dominant and growing market share for data center-driven renewable and microgrid investments.
A new Deloitte report finds that data-center and AI demand is now the dominant force driving mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. renewables and microgrid market. In its February 24, 2026 study, “Who will own the power? AI data centers drive power and utilities M&A,” Deloitte found that half of all U.S. power-capacity transactions in 2025 were renewables — more than 75 GW, up from 61 GW in 2024 — as buyers chase deliverable, firm capacity to feed a tightening grid.
What the Report Found
According to Microgrid Knowledge’s coverage of the Deloitte report, renewables made up half of all U.S. power-related capacity transactions in 2025 — over 75 GW, up from 61 GW the prior year. Deloitte attributes the shift to data-center growth: by 2035, data centers alone are projected to require 176 GW of power nationally, the report states. “There’s a lot of interest in data centers, which inherently requires you to come to market with not just the data center, but the power solution for the data center,” said Keith Adams, a Deloitte partner and report co-author. pv magazine USA reports that buyers are favoring “de-risked,” late-stage solar-plus-storage portfolios with firm interconnection positions, and that developer capital rotation — monetizing mature projects to fund new pipelines — accounted for 21% of all renewable asset deal volume in 2025. The U.S. solar sector remains fragmented, with more than 1,500 owners across 152 GW of operating capacity, which Deloitte says creates room for strategic roll-ups by utilities and independent power producers.
Why It Matters
The report reframes microgrids and behind-the-meter assets as power-procurement vehicles rather than standalone resilience plays. Renewables and microgrids are seen as able to deliver both capacity and reliability faster than new gas-fired plants, Adams told Microgrid Knowledge, which is why power companies and developers are buying them to pair with data-center builds. pv magazine USA notes that offtake agreements from hyperscalers — Google, Microsoft, and Amazon — are providing the financing certainty these deals need in a higher-interest-rate environment. For power-quality and storage suppliers, the trend points to sustained M&A-driven demand for the generation, storage, and controls that sit between a data center and the grid.
Critical Perspective
Deloitte’s “half of 2025 transactions were renewables” framing counts deal volume, not delivered electrons — a late-stage portfolio changing hands does not add a megawatt to the grid, and the same 176 GW data-center demand forecast that makes these assets attractive also assumes AI load growth that several utilities have begun to flag as speculative. With tax-credit transferability and safe-harbor rules still dictating deal timing, how much of this M&A wave is genuine capacity build-out versus financial repackaging of projects that would have been built anyway?
Sources
- Microgrid Knowledge — Most Renewables and Microgrid Acquisitions Now Focused on Powering Data Centers: Deloitte Report
- pv magazine USA — Solar-plus-storage M&A heats up as AI data centers drive demand
- Deloitte — Who will own the power? AI data centers drive power and utilities M&A
