Category
BIM Insight
Author
BIMCAP
Date
1 Oct 2026
The Data Center Challenge in 2026
Artificial intelligence is transforming the physical infrastructure behind the digital economy. Every AI model, cloud platform, video call and online service depends on data centers, and demand for computing capacity is growing rapidly.
As a result, building the next generation of data centers is no longer simply a matter of finding land and constructing a facility. Increasingly, the key question is: Can the site support the power, cooling and infrastructure the facility requires?
Category
BIM Insight
Author
BIMCAP
Date
1 Oct 2026
The Data Center Challenge in 2026
Artificial intelligence is transforming the physical infrastructure behind the digital economy. Every AI model, cloud platform, video call and online service depends on data centers, and demand for computing capacity is growing rapidly.
As a result, building the next generation of data centers is no longer simply a matter of finding land and constructing a facility. Increasingly, the key question is: Can the site support the power, cooling and infrastructure the facility requires?
Author
BIMCAP
Date
1 Oct 2026
The Data Center Challenge in 2026
Category
BIM Insight
Author
BIMCAP
Date
1 Oct 2026
Why the Next Generation Must Be Designed Around Power, Water and Place
Power Is Becoming the Primary Constraint
Data-center electricity demand is rising at an unprecedented pace. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects global data-center electricity consumption to reach approximately 945 TWh by 2030, more than double 2024 levels, driven largely by AI workloads.
This growth is significant enough to influence how electrical infrastructure is planned. In the United States, data centers could account for roughly 11.8% of national electricity consumption by 2030.
The challenge is that data centers can often be built faster than the power infrastructure needed to supply them. While a facility may take only a few years to construct, grid expansion projects often require many more years for planning, approval and delivery.
As a result, access to electrical capacity is becoming one of the most valuable characteristics of a potential site.
Site Selection Is Increasingly About Infrastructure
The pressure can already be seen in major digital markets.
In Ireland, data centers accounted for 23% of metered electricity consumption in 2025, highlighting the growing concentration of digital infrastructure demand.
Singapore faces a different challenge. As a major digital hub with limited land and natural resources, the country continues expanding data-center capacity while placing greater emphasis on resilience, efficiency and sustainability.
These examples demonstrate a broader trend: data centers can no longer be planned independently from the infrastructure systems that support them.
Water and Cooling Matter More Than Ever
Electricity is not the only resource shaping data-center development. Cooling systems are essential for managing the heat generated by modern computing equipment, particularly AI workloads.
Different cooling approaches involve different trade-offs between water use, energy efficiency, performance and operating cost. There is no single solution that works everywhere.
Instead, cooling strategies increasingly need to reflect local conditions, including climate, water availability, power infrastructure and computing density requirements.
The most successful projects are therefore those that align technology choices with the realities of the site.
Data Center Design Is Now a Multi-Variable Challenge
Modern data-center development requires balancing many interconnected factors, including:
Power availability and connection timing
Water and cooling requirements
Fiber connectivity
Land availability and expansion potential
Construction schedules
Resilience and redundancy requirements
Capital and operating costs
Improving one factor can create trade-offs elsewhere. A design that performs well in one region may be unsuitable in another.
The objective is no longer to identify a universal data-center design. The objective is to identify the right design for a specific location and business need.
From “Can We Build Here?” to “What Should We Build Here?”
Perhaps the most important shift in the industry is the growing connection between site selection, infrastructure planning and engineering design.
Power availability affects cooling decisions. Cooling influences water demand. Infrastructure availability affects construction schedules. Every decision is linked to another.
The opportunity is not simply to build faster. It is to understand these relationships earlier, enabling better decisions before major investments are made.
BIMCAP Insight: Better Inputs Create Better BIM
At BIMCAP, we see firsthand how the quality of a BIM model depends on the quality of the information that enters it.
As data centers become increasingly dependent on power infrastructure, cooling systems and site-specific constraints, early planning decisions play a larger role in project success. BIM teams are most effective when they understand not only what needs to be modeled, but also the assumptions and design intent behind it.
For data-center projects, where infrastructure decisions can have significant downstream impacts, accurate information and early coordination are essential.
Before asking BIM teams to model more detail, the industry should first focus on providing better information to model.
References
International Energy Agency (IEA), “Energy demand from AI,” Energy and AI.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, “United States Data Center Energy Usage Report: 2025 Update,” June 2026.
International Energy Agency (IEA), “Grids,” Electricity 2026.
International Energy Agency (IEA), “Executive summary,” Electricity 2026.
Central Statistics Office, Ireland, “Data Centres Metered Electricity Consumption 2025,” 7 July 2026.
Singapore Ministry of Digital Development and Information, “New Digital Infrastructure Bill To Strengthen The Foundations For
Singapore’s Digital Economy,” 8 September 2026.
Singapore Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, “Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Data Centres’ Use of Fresh Water Supply,” 26 February 2026.
JTC, “Nxera opens Singapore’s highest power-density, most energy efficient and multi-tenanted data centre,” 9 February 2026.
