The Power Allocation

By Spring Street Management GroupBusiness Investing

The Power Allocation episodes

March 11Duke Energy's 4.5 Gigawatt Data Center Portfolio
In this episode of The Power Allocation, we examine Duke Energy's unprecedented data center portfolio: 4.5 gigawatts of contracted capacity after signing a deal with Microsoft for large-scale AI complexes in North Carolina.
To put that in perspective: 4.5 gigawatts equals roughly four nuclear power plants. One utility. One customer category. That concentration of demand is unprecedented in American electricity history.
Key topics covered:
Why Duke's Carolinas, Indiana, and Florida service territory became hyperscale ground zero
The generation challenge: extending coal retirements, building gas, exploring nuclear—simultaneously
How clean energy procurement requirements clash with 24/7 data center load profiles
The math problem of matching intermittent renewables to constant demand
Why utilities built for 1-2% growth now face 10-20% growth in specific areas
About The Power Allocation: Brought to you by Spring Street Management Group, translating data center and energy hype into real infrastructure and assets on the daily.
Keywords: Duke Energy data center, Microsoft North Carolina, 4.5 gigawatt, utility data center contract, clean energy procurement, hyperscale power, Charlotte data center, Raleigh data center, grid capacity
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4 min
March 10Meta's Billion-Dollar Indiana Campus
In this episode of The Power Allocation, we analyze Meta's groundbreaking on a 1 gigawatt data center campus in Lebanon, Indiana—backed by a $10 billion investment that demonstrates how secondary markets can capture hyperscale infrastructure by solving the power equation.
One gigawatt equals enough power for 750,000 homes. Meta is building that capacity for servers in what was recently farmland.
Key topics covered:
Why Indiana won: lower costs, available land, cooperative utility (AES Indiana), aggressive incentives
What $10B actually buys: substations, transmission, backup generation, cooling—an industrial city
How Meta's 6.6GW nuclear procurement announcements connect to this campus
The new economic development playbook: power availability and permitting speed over traditional incentives
Why states with constrained grids weren't even in the running
About The Power Allocation: Brought to you by Spring Street Management Group, translating data center and energy hype into real infrastructure and assets on the daily.
Keywords: Meta data center, Indiana data center, Lebanon Indiana, hyperscale data center, AES Indiana, gigawatt campus, data center investment, economic development, Midwest data center, Meta AI infrastructure
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3 min
March 10Kazakhstan's Gigawatt Ambition
In this episode of The Power Allocation, we analyze Kazakhstan's announcement of Central Asia's largest data center campus in Ekibastuz with up to 1 gigawatt of energy capacity—and what it signals about AI infrastructure's global migration.
Ekibastuz has what most markets lack: abundant, cheap electricity from Soviet-era coal plants now underutilized. Kazakhstan is positioning itself for customers who prioritize cost over carbon.
Key topics covered:
How Soviet-era coal infrastructure becomes a competitive advantage for AI workloads
Target customers: Chinese companies, Russian firms, Indian enterprises, Middle Eastern funds
Why data sovereignty and compute access are becoming strategic national resources
Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Malaysia's parallel moves to capture AI infrastructure
How the global compute map is being redrawn along energy cost lines
About The Power Allocation: Brought to you by Spring Street Management Group, translating data center and energy hype into real infrastructure and assets on the daily.
Keywords: Kazakhstan data center, Ekibastuz, Central Asia data center, global AI infrastructure, data sovereignty, cheap electricity, coal power data center, emerging market data center, compute geography, AI geopolitics
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3 min
March 09Meta's Billion-Dollar Indiana Campus
In this episode of The Power Allocation, we analyze Meta's groundbreaking on a 1 gigawatt data center campus in Lebanon, Indiana, backed by a $10 billion investment.
One gigawatt. One campus. That's enough power for 750,000 homes—built for servers. Indiana won this project by solving the power equation: available land, cooperative utilities, streamlined permitting, and credible grid capacity.
Key topics covered:
Why Lebanon, Indiana beat coastal markets for a $10B hyperscale investment
AES Indiana's role in creative power solutions for massive load
How Meta's 6.6GW nuclear procurement announcements connect to Indiana operations
The infrastructure beyond servers: substations, transmission, cooling at hyperscale
Indiana as a replicable playbook for secondary market data center capture
About The Power Allocation: Brought to you by Spring Street Management Group, translating data center and energy hype into real infrastructure and assets on the daily.
Keywords: Meta data center, Indiana data center, Lebanon Indiana, 1 gigawatt campus, AES Indiana, hyperscale data center, data center investment, economic development, power infrastructure, Meta nuclear
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3 min
March 09Meta's Billion-Dollar Indiana Campus
In this episode of The Power Allocation, we analyze Meta's groundbreaking on a 1 gigawatt data center campus in Lebanon, Indiana—backed by a $10 billion investment that's reshaping how states compete for hyperscale projects.
One gigawatt. One campus. That's enough to power 750,000 homes—and Meta is building it for servers. Indiana won by solving the power equation.
Key topics covered:
Why Lebanon, Indiana beat coastal markets: cheap power, available land, cooperative utility
AES Indiana's creative power solutions and state economic development incentives
Building a small city's worth of electrical infrastructure from scratch
How Meta's 6.6GW nuclear procurement connects to the Indiana campus
The new economic development playbook: power availability over traditional incentives
About The Power Allocation: Brought to you by Spring Street Management Group, translating data center and energy hype into real infrastructure and assets on the daily.
Keywords: Meta data center, Lebanon Indiana, 1 gigawatt campus, $10 billion data center, AES Indiana, hyperscale Midwest, Indiana economic development, Meta nuclear power, secondary market data center
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3 min
March 09Google's Geothermal Expansion
In this episode of The Power Allocation, we analyze Google's expanding geothermal strategy following their deal with Ormat Technologies and NV Energy for up to 150 megawatts of new geothermal capacity in Nevada.
Geothermal offers something unique for data centers: true baseload power. Unlike solar and wind, geothermal runs 24/7—matching data center load profiles almost perfectly with no intermittency, no massive battery storage, no backup generation required.
Key topics covered:
Why the Ormat deal for new capacity represents genuine additionality on the grid
How Nevada's Basin and Range geology and streamlined permitting enable expansion
Google's Fervo Energy partnership and enhanced geothermal's broader potential
Why 300MW of geothermal can power a medium-sized data center campus carbon-free
Geographic limitations and why geothermal remains concentrated in specific regions
About The Power Allocation: Brought to you by Spring Street Management Group, translating data center and energy hype into real infrastructure and assets on the daily.
Keywords: Google geothermal, Ormat Technologies, NV Energy, Nevada data center, geothermal power, Fervo Energy, enhanced geothermal, baseload power, clean energy data center, renewable energy, carbon-free power
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3 min
March 06The Real Timeline for Data Center Nuclear
This episode provides a realistic assessment of when nuclear power will actually reach data centers, broken down by pathway.
Key topics covered:
Reactor restarts (fastest): Three Mile Island 2028, Palisades 2025
NuScale certified SMRs: 2028-2030 first deployments
Advanced designs (Oklo, Kairos, X-energy): 2030+ commercial operation
Micro reactors: fast construction once NRC certified
Related keywords: nuclear timeline data centers, reactor restart timeline, SMR deployment schedule, advanced nuclear 2030, data center power planning
Brought to you by Spring Street Management Group.]]>
3 min
March 05Why Tech Giants Are Buying Nuclear Directly
Hyperscalers are no longer waiting for utilities to build nuclear capacity—they're contracting directly with generators and investing billions in new reactor development.
Key topics covered:
Microsoft Three Mile Island restart agreement
Amazon: $20B+ nuclear infrastructure investment including X-energy
Google-Kairos Power: 500 MW advanced reactor partnership
Meta: 6.6 GW nuclear agreements
Related keywords: hyperscaler nuclear procurement, Microsoft Three Mile Island, Amazon nuclear investment, Google Kairos Power, data center nuclear PPA
Brought to you by Spring Street Management Group.]]>
3 min
March 04Long-Duration Storage Changes the Renewables Equation
Long-duration energy storage is transforming the economics of renewable-powered data centers.
Key topics covered:
Form Energy iron-air batteries: 100+ hour discharge duration
Chemistry basics: reversible rusting process stores and releases energy
West Virginia manufacturing facility under construction
Cost advantages from abundant iron vs. lithium/cobalt
Related keywords: long-duration energy storage, Form Energy, iron-air battery, 100-hour storage, renewable data centers, lithium alternative battery
Brought to you by Spring Street Management Group.]]>
3 min
March 03Fusion's Long Bet on Data Center Power
Nuclear fusion represents the ultimate clean energy source for data centers—but when will it actually deliver power?
Key topics covered:
Lawrence Livermore ignition milestone: net energy achieved December 2022
$10.6 billion private funding 2021-2025
Helion Energy-Microsoft PPA targeting 2028 delivery
Commonwealth Fusion Systems building 400 MW SPARC device
Related keywords: nuclear fusion data centers, Helion Energy Microsoft, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, SPARC reactor, fusion ignition, clean energy future
Brought to you by Spring Street Management Group.]]>
4 min

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The AI boom isn't constrained by chips, algorithms, or talent. It's constrained by electricity.

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The Power Allocation

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