ESG Today – Cloverleaf Infrastructure Raises $300 Million to Develop Low Carbon Data Center Sites
By Susan Lahey
July 18, 2024
Power infrastructure company Cloverleaf Infrastructure announced today that it has raised over $300 million, with proceeds to be used to develop data center sites that run on low-carbon electricity across the U.S.
Data centers globally are responsible for a growing share of climate impact, already reaching up to 2% of the world’s carbon emissions, nearly equivalent to that of the airline industry. Demand
for data center resources continues to increase rapidly, driven by technologies such as AI and streaming.
Several tech giants over the past few weeks, including Microsoft, Google and Amazon, have highlighted increased energy needs to meet the AI-driven growth in data centers as a key challenge to their decarbonization goals.
Founded in 2024, Houston, Texas and Seattle, Washington-based Cloverleaf was established to large-scale digital infrastructure sites powered by low-carbon electricity, handling the largest electric loads in the U.S. The company collaborates with regional U.S. utilities and data center operators to deliver scalable, clean electricity through strategic investments in transmission, grid interconnection, land, onsite power generation, and electricity storage. The executive team previously worked at power companies including Pattern Energy and ConnectGen, as well as major data center operators such as Microsoft.
David Berry, Cloverleaf CEO, said:
“The rapid growth in demand for electricity to power cloud computing and artificial intelligence poses a major climate risk if fueled by high-emission fossil fuels. However, it’s also a major opportunity to catalyze the modernization of the US grid and the transition to a smarter and more sustainable electricity system through a novel approach to development.”
The funding included investments by private equity investors NGP and Sandbrook Capital, with contributions from Cloverleaf’s management team.
Sam Stoutner, Partner at NGP, said:
“Having backed hundreds of energy companies in the US over more than 30 years, we believe the opportunity set for clean-powered digital infrastructure development is as compelling as anything we’ve seen before, and the convergence of exceptional talent from both the power and digital sectors at Cloverleaf is truly extraordinary.”