A quiet yet powerful shift is reshaping the real estate market. What was once dominated by residential, commercial, and industrial developments is now being transformed by the growing needs of oft-unaccounted pivotal industries in the real estate space—data centers and renewable energy installations. This “New Real Estate” is expanding the traditional real estate market asset value by $10.3 trillion, and by likely $15 trillion in 2030 given the incredible pace of data center development. This expanded real estate in infrastructure, energy and data centers is unlocking opportunities for forward-thinking real estate investors, developers, and more and is reshaping the way we view the real estate economy of the United States.
The demand for faster, more efficient data processing has skyrocketed in the digital age, propelling investment in state-of-the-art data centers. At the same time, the global push for sustainability is driving a rapid expansion in solar farms, wind turbines, and other renewable energy infrastructures. What do these seemingly disparate forces have in common? They require strategic locations, innovative land use, and tailored property development, creating an entirely new segment of the real estate market.
This report will explore the factors fueling this trend, the growth potential across these industries, and how savvy stakeholders can tap into this lucrative intersection of technology and sustainability.
The Rising Demand for Data Center / AI Infrastructure
The demand for data centers has surged in recent years, driven by an exponential increase in global data generation and storage needs. According to LandGate’s detailed studies, as of February 2025, the total investment in Data Center and AI Infrastructure within the USA has surpassed $1.995 trillion, and could exceed $5 trillion by 2030.
Market Asset Value of Data Centers within the USA
Data centers account for approximately 90% of the massive investment in AI & Data Infrastructure. LandGate boasts a highly comprehensive coverage of Data Centers, with ~5,300 colocation, hyperscale, and enterprise data centers live on the platform, as of February 2025. LandGate also offers a Data Center Due Diligence report which further analyzes the critical infrastructure around Data Centers. Key features include details about the building infrastructure, electrical infrastructure, and energy prices nodes surrounding the site of a selected data center.
Looking ahead to the Growth of Data Centers
Based on LandGate’s data intelligence & analysis, data centers are poised for extraordinary growth with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) exceeding 20%. This rapid expansion is forecasted to drive the industry’s asset value to more than $5 trillion by 2030. The chart below illustrates the exponential growth trajectory, reflecting how increasing investments and rising demand for digital infrastructure will continue to transform the data center landscape. With such robust growth underpinned by surging digital demand and increasing investments, this sector offers an attractive opportunity for investors, developers, and industry professionals.
Market Value of Fiber Optic Lines
Fiber optic lines contribute nearly $121 billion to total investments in data infrastructure and AI. LandGate delivers precise data on regional/metro and long haul fiber optic lines, accurately mapping over 2 million miles of the fiber optic network, as of February 2025. These robust networks are essential for data centers, providing the high-speed, low-latency connectivity needed for efficient data transmission and the seamless operation of modern digital and AI-driven services.
Several key factors contribute to this data explosion
Cloud Computing: The rapid adoption of cloud-based services by enterprises and individuals has rampantly increased storage and processing requirements. Companies like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google continue to expand their data center networks to support growing workloads.
Internet of Things (IoT): With billions of connected devices generating real-time data, industries such as smart cities, healthcare, and autonomous transportation are driving massive data accumulation. The number of IoT-connected devices is expected to surpass 29 billion by 2030 .
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning: AI-driven applications require vast computational power and storage. Training AI models, processing large datasets, and executing complex algorithms demand high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure, increasing reliance on large-scale data centers.
Real Estate Implications
With trillions of dollars worth of investment, Data Centers have cemented their position within the New Real Estate in the United States. The widespread expansion of data centers has reshaped real estate dynamics, particularly in areas with high connectivity and infrastructure reliability.
Strategic Location Considerations: Data centers are often located near urban hubs or major fiber optic network intersections to minimize latency and maximize efficiency.
Zoning, Permitting, and Land Costs: The development of data centers is influenced by local zoning laws, environmental regulations, and land availability. Some jurisdictions impose strict requirements related to noise, heat emissions, and energy consumption. Additionally, land costs in prime locations can be prohibitively high, leading operators to explore secondary markets and rural areas with strong connectivity infrastructure.
Redevelopment and Repurposing: Older industrial and commercial properties are increasingly being repurposed into data centers to reduce development timelines and costs. Cities like Chicago, Dallas, and Northern Virginia have become major hubs for data center expansion due to their existing infrastructure and business-friendly policies.
Energy Demand and Sustainability Challenges
Data centers are among the most energy-intensive facilities, consuming vast amounts of electricity to maintain 24/7 uptime and optimal operating conditions.
Carbon Footprint of Data Centers: The global data center industry accounts for approximately 1-2% of total global energy consumption, with hyperscale data centers consuming up to 50 terawatt-hours (TWh) annually. The environmental impact of data centers has prompted companies to adopt carbon neutrality goals and invest in renewable energy solutions.
Cooling Systems and Energy Intensity: A significant portion of energy usage (up to 40%) is allocated to cooling systems, which are essential for maintaining optimal operating temperatures. Innovative cooling solutions, such as liquid cooling, immersion cooling, and AI-driven energy optimization, are being explored to enhance efficiency and reduce energy waste.
Renewable Energy Integration: Leading data center operators, including Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, are investing heavily in solar, wind, and hydroelectric power to offset their carbon footprint. Leveraging the nearly $2.5 trillion electrical infrastructure, Data Center developers can facilitate a smooth renewable energy integration. Additionally, technologies like grid-interactive energy storage and demand response systems are also being leveraged to improve sustainability and grid resilience.
Market Value of Electrical Infrastructure in the U.S.
The backbone of data center expansion is heavily reliant on electrical infrastructure. LandGate’s extensive coverage of electrical infrastructure amounts to a total valuation of approximately $2.316 trillion, as of February 2025.
Substations play a critical role in power distribution, and they represent a substantial portion of the overall value in our portfolio. With a total valuation of $900 billion for more than 80,000 substations, as of February 2025, this asset class is pivotal to the infrastructure landscape. Moreover, LandGate’s substations are enhanced by comprehensive Available Injection and Offtake Studies, providing an added layer of operational insight and value. These studies help ensure optimal integration into the power grid, while also supporting strategic planning and efficient energy management. More can be read about ATC through LandGate’s ‘Transforming the Energy Workflow with Available Transfer Capacity (ATC) Data’ article.
Additionally, transmission lines add a significant $1.018 trillion to the valuation. LandGate’s coverage for transmission lines spans over an impressive 510,000 miles, as of February 2025. Distribution lines contribute another $129 billion, with LandGate’s coverage stretching over 257,902 miles, as of February 2025. Supporting infrastructure such as power plants and transformers further supplement this with a valuation of $269.9 billion. As data centers require stable, high-capacity power delivery to support their increasing workloads, investments in electrical infrastructure are fundamental to sustaining the industry's rapid growth and ensuring operational reliability.
Market Asset Value of US Renewable Energy & CCS
Integrating renewable energy sources like solar and wind has become a critical strategy for data center developers seeking to reduce their carbon footprints and enhance sustainability. As of February 2025, the total renewable energy investment is nearing $1.574 trillion. Companies are increasingly turning to power purchase agreements (PPAs), onsite renewable energy generation, and battery energy storage systems (BESS) to support their transition toward greener operations.
Net Asset Value of Solar Farms in the US
LandGate’s Solar Analysis tool is a valuation solution for solar farms. It leverages an extensive dataset that covers projects in every status—from Active to Site Control—and integrates corresponding Pricing Nodes to accurately calculate net generation, revenue, and tax equity. This tool allows users to toggle between retail pricing and LMP pricing, providing flexible options to reflect market dynamics accurately. Additionally, the platform enables adjustments to key parameters such as the discount rate and leverage percentage, ensuring a tailored approach to forecasting. This comprehensive analysis ultimately yields a reliable Net Asset Value for each solar asset, empowering stakeholders with precise, data-driven insights for investment and operational decisions.
LandGate’s analysis shows that utility-scale solar dominates renewable energy investment. When assessing all utility-scale projects using LMP hub values, their total valuation reaches $715.6 billion for 719,529 MW of capacity as of February 2025. However, focusing only on active and under-construction projects using retail pricing, the valuation stays at $151.12 billion for 160,184 MW.
In comparison, residential solar is valued at $179 billion, while Community and Commercial & Industrial (C&I) solar account for $275.2 billion. These segments command higher per-unit revenue due to retail electricity pricing, unlike utility-scale projects, which primarily sell at lower wholesale rates. From an investor standpoint, utility-scale solar averages $32.61/MWh, but from a consumer perspective, where retail electricity costs $59.56/MWh, its total economic value would be nearly twice as high.
Market value of Wind, BESS, and Carbon Injection Wells
LandGate’s comprehensive data on wind farms, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and carbon capture and storage (CCS) offers an unparalleled level of insight and accuracy, empowering developers, investors, and stakeholders to make data-driven decisions in these rapidly growing markets. The platform’s wind farm coverage is valued at $371.4 billion and generates 232,111 MW, as of February 2025. LandGate’s wind farm coverage includes projects of all statuses from the interconnection queue, from site control to active, tying together data to provide detailed information on project locations, capacities, and economic viability. LandGate’s Unlocking the Power of Wind Farm Development with Locational Marginal Pricing (LMP) article explains the nuances that go behind the financial success of wind farms
LandGate’s BESS dataset delivers exceptional insights across every phase of a battery energy storage system’s lifecycle—from early-stage development and site control through to full operational status. Representing $26.5 billion in investments and 139,364 MWac of capacity (based on figures from February 2025), the platform provides a comprehensive view of current assets and forward-looking performance metrics. By incorporating detailed information from systems at various stages, LandGate empowers stakeholders to conduct real-time analyses, optimize grid reliability, and make strategic decisions that enhance energy storage efficiency and grid stabilization. More can be read about the impact of Battery Storage projects in this article.
Beyond renewables, LandGate also delivers robust CCS intelligence, highlighting an estimated injection of ~80 million tons (February 2025), which translates to a $6.8 billion valuation under the current 45Q tax credit rate of approximately $85 per ton. By combining real-time geospatial mapping, regulatory analysis, and financial modeling, LandGate’s data platform equips energy professionals with the tools they need to optimize resource development, minimize risk, and drive sustainable growth. Also, LandGate’s ‘A Guide to the IRA & CCS Development’ article further explains the 45Q credit and CCS development.
Key Examples of Renewable Energy Integration in Data Centers
Google: Google has committed to operating on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030, leveraging AI-driven energy management and PPAs for renewable sources. The company has signed over 7 GW of renewable energy deals globally, making it one of the largest corporate buyers of clean energy .
Microsoft: Microsoft has pledged to be carbon-negative by 2030 and relies on renewable energy sources to power its Azure cloud data centers. The company invests in grid-interactive energy storage solutions and hydrogen fuel cells to supplement renewable energy during intermittencies.
Amazon: Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy globally, with over 100 solar and wind projects supporting its data centers. AWS also uses sustainable cooling methods to improve energy efficiency.
Advantages of Co-Locating Renewable Projects and Data Centers
Reduced Transmission Losses: Electricity transmission over long distances leads to energy losses. Co-locating data centers with wind and solar farms minimizes these losses, improving energy efficiency.
Enhanced Energy Security: Onsite renewable energy generation reduces dependence on the traditional power grid, mitigating risks associated with outages and fluctuations in energy prices.
Operational Cost Savings: While the upfront investment in renewable projects is significant, long-term cost savings from lower electricity prices and potential tax incentives make renewables financially attractive.
Regional Renewable Energy Resources
Different regions in the U.S. offer abundant renewable energy resources, making them ideal locations for data centers powered by clean energy:
Midwest (Wind Energy Hub): States like Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas have some of the highest wind energy capacities, making them prime locations for wind-powered data centers.
Southwest (Solar Energy Hub): Arizona, California, and New Mexico receive some of the highest solar irradiance in the country, making them ideal for solar farms co-located with data centers.
Challenges in Renewable Adoption
Intermittencies in Supply: Solar and wind energy generation is weather-dependent, leading to fluctuations in energy availability. This stipulation is offset by battery storage systems, though, since they ensure uninterrupted power supply
Initial Capital Expenditure vs. Long-Term ROI: Developing renewable projects requires high upfront costs for infrastructure, land acquisition, and grid interconnection. However, long-term cost savings, corporate sustainability incentives, and government subsidies can offset these expenses over time.
Market Asset Value of The Traditional Energy Sector
The traditional energy sector remains a cornerstone of the global economy, with substantial investments in oil, natural gas, and pipeline infrastructure. According to LandGate’s data analysis as of February 2025, the total valuation of remaining recoverable hydrocarbons and associated infrastructure in the U.S. has surpassed $4.367 trillion.
As of February 2025, LandGate’s extensive data coverage encompasses more than 1.5 million producing oil and gas wells with historical production data, along with hydrocarbon pipelines spanning 35,874 miles—valued at $125.6 billion. In addition, natural gas pipelines stretch for 739,754 miles, representing a $369 billion investment. These datasets provide unparalleled insights into operational performance, infrastructure capacity, and asset valuation. By integrating geospatial mapping, production analytics, and economic modeling, LandGate empowers operators, investors, and landowners to assess opportunities, mitigate risks, and optimize resource development across the entire energy landscape.
Market Asset Value of Oil, Gas, and NGLs
LandGate’s Oil & Gas Analysis tools leverage an extensive repository of well data including mapping of all producing, drilled and permitted wells. In addition Landgate maps proven un-developed (PUD) well locations across all major U.S. Oil and Gas Basins. Each well is paired with geologic and reservoir mapping, historical and forecasted production data to deliver accurate well-by-well forecasts utilizing typecurve forecasts. LandGate generates type-curve forecasts by analyzing past production trends for oil, gas and NGL production streams to accurately calculate the remaining Estimated Ultimate Recovery (EUR) for each well. Moreover, LandGate captures current and future trading prices, more specifically the NYMEX WTI Oil and Henry Hub Natural Gas prices. These prices are used to calculate commodity pricing forecasts, enabling precise revenue modeling and NAV calculations over time. This data-driven approach not only enhances forecasting accuracy but also empowers users to make informed decisions based on granular, asset-level insights.
Using LandGate’s data intelligence, as of February 2025, it can be determined that crude oil reserves (Remaining OIL EUR) lead the traditional energy sector with over 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil at $76.55 per barrel. Natural gas and liquids reserves (Gas & NGL EUR) hold an estimated 1.5 trillion MCF with a $3.20 per thousand cubic feet (MCF) pricing metric. LandGate valued the estimated and risked cashflows of all the Producing Developed (PDP), Drilled Proven not Developed (PDNP), Permitted proven undeveloped (PUD) and Upside proven undeveloped (PUD) locations all over the US to $3.872 Trillion.
The New Real Estate Case Studies
Example 1: Google's Renewable Energy-Powered Data Center in Iowa
Google has made significant investments in Iowa to power its data centers with renewable energy. In 2010, Google signed a 20-year agreement to purchase 114 megawatts of wind power from a wind farm in Iowa, marking its first direct investment in renewable energy. This initiative has expanded over the years, with Google investing an additional $5.5 billion in its Council Bluffs data center campus. These efforts align with Iowa's status as a leader in wind energy, providing a sustainable power source for Google's operations.
Example 2: Digital Realty acquiring multi-purpose land for data centers and solar farms
Digital Realty, a real estate investment trust, owns and operates numerous data centers worldwide and is committed to sustainability. Digital Realty has integrated renewable energy solutions into its facilities, with 126 data centers globally matched with renewable energy, including 100% renewable energy powering its European portfolio and U.S. colocation data centers. This approach not only meets the growing demand for data storage but also aligns with environmental sustainability goals.
Looking Ahead to the “New Real Estate” Market
The additional real estate market of Energy, Infrastructure, and Data Centers is estimated at $10.3 Trillion market asset value as of Feb 2025, and is estimated to grow to $15 trillion in 2030, and $20 Trillion in 2035. This market is now entirely part of real estate, in what we refer to as “New Real Estate”.
The fusion of data centers and renewable energy infrastructure represents a seismic shift in what defines valuable real estate today. These rapidly evolving markets offer immense opportunities not only for tech and energy companies but also for forward-thinking real estate stakeholders ready to adapt to these emerging trends. With data centers becoming the backbone of our digital world and renewable energy driving sustainable operations, the intersection of these industries will continue to shape the future of investment and development.
The numbers speak volumes—trillions of dollars are pouring into these sectors, promising robust growth and long-term returns. The future is clear: successful real estate strategies will need to prioritize connectivity, infrastructure reliability, and environmentally conscious operations.
For those in the real estate market, there has never been a better time to explore opportunities in data center development and renewable energy integration. Understanding these markets today positions you to lead tomorrow.
To learn more about LandGate’s data and market analyses, reach out to our dedicated energy & data team.
