Investor education series · Part 01
India's data-centre power boom, and what it actually means for a 6.5 MW solar plant
A grounded look at the numbers behind the “data centres need power” narrative — what's verified, what's overstated, and where a Group Captive solar asset realistically fits.
01
How much power do data centres actually need?
This varies by an order of magnitude depending on facility type. The industry groups them into four tiers, each with a very different total facility load once cooling, UPS losses, and infrastructure overhead (PUE ≈ 1.2–1.4) are included.
| Facility type | IT load | Total facility load | Roughly equivalent to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise data centre | 1–5 MW | 1.3–7 MW | 2,000–10,000 homes |
| Large colocation | 10–30 MW | 13–40 MW | 25,000–60,000 homes |
| Hyperscale cloud | 50–100 MW | 65–130 MW | 120,000–250,000 homes |
| AI / hyperscale campus | 100–300 MW | 130–390 MW | 250,000–750,000 homes |
Standard industry ranges (PUE 1.2–1.4) · illustrative, not India-specific
02
India’s actual build-out, verified
The often-cited “1.5 GW by 2025” figure checks out — it’s the government’s own number, and independent industry trackers land in the same range.
Context: this sits alongside India’s broader power build-out — the country crossed 500 GW of total installed capacity in October 2025, with renewables now making up over half of that.
03
Where does this go by 2030? (the honest range)
Forecasts vary by publisher and by what they measure — installed capacity vs. electricity demand, and different end years. Presenting one number as consensus overstates the certainty here.
Takeaway: the credible range for installed capacity by 2030 is roughly 4–10 GW — a tripling to a near-7x increase, not a fixed number. The government’s 13.56 GW figure is electricity demand in 2031–32, a different and larger metric than installed IT capacity.
04
The grid-level pressure this creates
This is real and recently confirmed. India’s Power Minister put a number on it on 8 July 2026, explicitly naming data centres, AI, and EVs as demand drivers.
05
Where a 6.5 MW plant actually fits
Solar isn’t a 1:1 substitute for a 24/7 data-centre load. The honest framing matters more than the flattering one.
The nuance that matters: solar’s real role is as a contracted energy and REC contributor within a hybrid PPA or Group Captive structure — not a literal substitute for baseload. That’s a more defensible position than claiming a plant “powers X% of a data centre.”
06
Why this matters for Celestio specifically
- Geography lines up. Roughly 90% of India’s data-centre capacity concentrates in Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, and Mumbai — Pavagada’s grid connectivity sits within reach of the single largest concentration, Bengaluru.
- The buyer category is credible and funded. Roughly $70 billion is already committed to India’s data-centre sector, with another $90 billion announced.
- Data-centre operators want long-tenor green PPAs (15–25 years), 24×7 renewable supply, and Open Access / Group Captive structures — which is exactly Celestio’s existing structure, not a pivot.
- The realistic pitch is participation in a growing, firm-power-hungry demand pool — not displacement of a data centre’s full load by one plant.
Sources verified July 2026: PIB / Ministry of Electronics & IT (PRID 2239616, PRID 2227953) · Reuters, 8 Jul 2026 · Savills India via The Tribune, 9 Jan 2026 · Cushman & Wakefield India H1 2025 Update · Invest India, 14 May 2026 · The Week (citing S&P Global), 6 Jul 2026 · KPMG India Data Centre Opportunity, 2026.