UK non-profit trade association Renewable Energy Association (REA) has launched its Data Center Coalition, aimed at unlocking clean, scalable power for UK data centers and shaping the policy environment around the sector.

According to the REA, the new coalition will focus on developing investable clean-power models, designing an integrated national planning framework, creating policy certainty, and providing evidence-based input to government and regulators.

The founding members of the coalition include Enfinium, Greenscale, Apatura, and Clarke Energy.

“On behalf of our 400 members, we felt it was essential to step forward at this pivotal moment. The UK is in a global race to secure data center investment, and to meet the sector’s rapidly growing energy demand alongside addressing wider sustainability challenges, said REA chief executive Trevor Hutchings. “Our Data Center Coalition provides the collective strength to engage directly at the highest levels of government. It ensures that decisions are informed by the full expertise and evidence from the organizations delivering the infrastructure on which the UK’s digital and economic ambitions depend.”

The UK is currently positioning itself as a data center and artificial intelligence hub. According to recent reports, data center electricity demand in the UK is expected to rise between 200 and 600 percent between 2025 and 2050. However, concerns persist over whether the country has the generation capacity and distribution infrastructure needed to support such exponential growth.

The UK’s grid transmission operator, National Grid, recently revealed that data center requests had soared, representing more than half of the 19GW of load seeking connections by 2031. Due to increased requests from the sector, National Grid projections indicate that data centers could consume up to nine percent of electricity demand by 2035, up from 2.6 percent today.

Last year, the UK government-owned National Energy System Operator (Neso) released its Clean Power 2030 report, which claimed that it is possible to build, connect, and operate a clean power system for Great Britain by 2030 while supporting a fourfold growth in data center electricity demand.

In the report, Neso envisioned offshore wind making up more than half of the UK’s generation, with solar providing 29 percent. In addition, it points to other low-carbon technologies, including hydrogen as CCS, to add additional value to the system. However, concerns persist about whether renewables can act as the backbone of a reliable energy system. To shore up baseload supply, the UK has invested heavily in nuclear energy over recent years. Last month, it was revealed that Wylfa in Wales would be the first UK site where Rolls-Royce would develop its 470MW small modular reactor, a miniaturized fission reactor.