Author
Blathnaid O’Dea
Blathnaid is Features Editor with pv magazine Global. Prior to joining the team in 2024, she specialized in writing feature-length articles about STEM careers. She also covered news, including some of Ireland’s renewable energy announcements over the past few years.
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Articles written by Blathnaid O’Dea
Feeding Europe’s AI energy demand
On one hand, European policymakers are aiming for climate neutrality by 2050. On the other, they’re aiming to at least triple the region’s data center market by the mid-2030s to conserve European digital sovereignty and economic competitiveness. Is it possible to do both? Not without demand-side flexibility, cross-border electricity trading, and smarter integration of renewable energy assets.
Jun 24, 2026
Airengy, Hagag Europe to build 5 GWh compressed-air energy storage plant in Romania
Hagag Europe and Airengy’s Romania project will harness the latter’s long duration energy storage AirBattery technology with underground salt caverns to eventually reach 5 GWh storage capacity. Airengy told ESS News commercial operation is likely to begin in early 2028.
Renewables-powered data centers feasible with sevenfold solar and wind overbuild, study finds
A LUT University study finds that data centers could be powered continuously by intermittent renewables like wind and solar when paired with backup generation and demand-side flexibility. However, achieving firm supply would require major overbuild, significant curtailment, and careful siting to keep costs competitive with other baseload sources.
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Heat pumps cheaper to operate than gas boilers in almost all EU countries, IEA claims
Heat pumps could offer annual energy savings up to €800 ($924) in the EU, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). But deployment is very uneven in both residential and industrial settings, which the IEA attributes to market structures and policy design, which varies from country to country.
Global grid capex to surpass $650 billion in 2026, says Rystad Energy
Global transformer manufacturing capacity reached 4,700 gigavolt-amperes (GVA) in 2025, supported by around 400 plants operated by more than 260 manufacturers. These statistics are from a new report by Rystad illustrating the global energy market’s dependence on access to critical grid equipment.
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Dutch solar owners asked to switch off during peak periods to ease distribution crisis
The Dutch market regulator is set to introduce new rules for grid connections starting 1 July which will see householders and business owners slip down the priority queue. Grid operators have been urging people to change their consumption and generation behaviors.
Solar streetlights with AI could solve data center energy demand
Putting Nvidia computer chips into solar-powered streetlamps to create a virtual power plant is a simple solution to the energy demand problems created by data centers, according to Edward Fitzpatrick. His company ConFlow Power Group is doing exactly that with its iLamp streetlamps, he told pv magazine.
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