Verne CEO on its renewable edge in the AI race

The European data centre market is currently under strain, with traditional FLAP-D markets pushing availability timelines to 2030 and beyond. This has inevitably forced operators to rethink where and how they deploy AI infrastructure.

For Verne, this moment is a global strategy years in the making. Company CEO Dominic Ward shares with Capacity how its focus on the Nordics is positioning the company ahead.

Creating impact with Nscale

To accelerate sustainable AI infrastructure growth in the Nordics, Verne partnered with Nscale at the end of last year.
“It’s great to be aligned in partnership with them,” Ward explained. “They continue to deploy capacity in our facility throughout 2026 as they scale.”

Notably, the deployment is liquid-cooled with the latest Nvidia chips. Ward told us how the deployment was one of the first GB300 installations in Europe at scale, liquid-cooled with the latest Nvidia chips. Both companies now see great growth prospects as they scale AI infrastructure.

“They continue to secure quite substantial amounts of capacity with their end users, so it’s been a good start to the relationship,” Ward added. “Our focus is to provide the highest-density, low-carbon capacity that we provide in our Nordic facilities. We enable them to be more efficient and reduce energy costs.”

Unpacking the renewable energy advantage

Investing in Iceland is a great incentive for the data centre industry. Not only does it generate all its energy from renewable sources, but its climate is also consistent for data centre operations, enabling companies like Verne to design and engineer infrastructure more efficiently.

“We can be more efficient on the operational power consumption, using less power because we can take advantage of the natural climate with natural free air cooling – all because of the geographical location we’re in,” Ward said. “We can design our infrastructure so we don’t have to use any water.”

Iceland is also well-positioned geographically between North America and Europe, with multiple subsea cable systems. Ward explained that a significant evolution is taking place, as end-users are now thinking about their infrastructure differently, disaggregating the way they run their compute.

“AI has accelerated this because much of the dense compute needs to be centralised and focused for training models,” he said, explaining how Verne was able to drive a transition over to liquid cooling, which it has now had within its data centres for six years.

“When we deploy our compute for someone like Nscale or our hyperscale customers, it enables us to provide infrastructure to those that are at the very top end of the dense and high-density computing range,” he added. “We want to enable that density at a lower cost, with very stable power capability and with an ability to reduce the carbon footprint of our customers’ compute at the same time.”

Sustainability under pressure

Dominating the headlines in 2026 so far is the AI infrastructure surge, with the pace of change only increasing. Three years ago, there was an excess supply of power, but now the supply is tight” – a challenge that is only expected to continue.

“We’re now going through a huge acceleration enabled by that chip capability,” Ward added. “That has enormously increased power requirements. There is less supply available not just for the data centre industry, but it is somewhat caused by the data centre industry. That creates a problem because the end user wants to expand as quickly as possible.”

A powerful consideration within this transition is renewables, with intermittent sources of solar and wind creating significant challenges for a grid, impacting data centres that require consistent power 24/7.

“Power needs to be persistent and consistent,” Ward explained. “The generation side of the power grid needs to think about how it gets balanced. Battery storage and smarter grid balancing could be part of the near-term answer, but the deeper problem is one of timing.”

He added: “In many cases, infrastructure may need to be distributed further North (ie. The Nordics), because that’s where power is available in shorter timelines. That will be a massive positive for us.”

Infrastructure currently can’t keep pace with demand. Ward explained how, if businesses are building on the transmission side, it can take as long as 10 years for new high-voltage power lines to connect new areas or to provide significant additional capacity.

“It’s probably not going to take less than five years,” he added. “And yet, demand is this year, next year and beyond.”
As demand accelerates, it becomes difficult for data centres to rely on renewables – particularly in countries that don’t have natural, stable resources. It’s this mismatch that is leading data centre operators to move further North, where clean and reliable power already exists.

The contrast with North America is also stark, as Ward explained how some sites are using large gas turbines to avoid connecting to the grid.

“The plan is to have over one gigawatt of capacity within a short period with huge gas turbines,” Ward explained. “This is effectively increasing carbon footprints of the data centre industry, probably at a faster rate than has ever been seen in its entire history.”
While he doesn’t expect this approach to take hold in the EU, the trajectory of the industry concerns him.

“It’s having a huge impact on the data centre industry, which is why we’ll continue to champion the benefits of thinking about where compute can be most efficient, most cost-effective and have the lowest impact on the planet,” he argued. “This is why our focus is on the Nordics.”

Planning, power perception: How Verne confronts rising demand

To balance innovation with sustainability, Verne’s strategy is planning ahead five years at a time. Ward explained how this has always been central to how the company operates. This was the case for its site in Norway, which the company started thinking about three-and-a-half years ago. This planning means Verne is now ready to start developing the site in 2026.

“Anyone coming to the market thinking they will get power within the next six months is probably already too late,” Ward explained. “In Dublin alone, the grid operator now requires new connections to come with on-site generation so they don’t create additional constraints on a massively challenged supply.”

With this very obvious challenge for the industry, Verne has been planning for years to ensure capacity, power contracts, transmission agreements and reserved power and sites.

“We’re deploying and building on sites that have taken us many years to plan for,” Ward added.

He explained how, during this, Verne is eager to stay true to the mission the company has always had, which is to focus on Northern Europe for the benefits of climate and access to the type of low-carbon power it provides.

“It’s a key positioning point for our business. But because of planning for a long time, we’re now able to deploy it because other markets have constrained supply that’s really starting to strain the entire European data centre market,” he said.

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This feature formed part of the Datacloud Global Congress special edition of Capacity Magazine. Read it HERE.

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