CityBiz sits down with Ethan Eisenberg, DataBank’s Director of Energy and Sustainability Management, for a wide-ranging Q&A on the practical realities of clean energy procurement, grid management, and the policy trends shaping where data centers are built and how they operate.

Eisenberg offers a measured take on renewable energy matching, noting that annual clean energy matching through RECs and virtual PPAs is achievable within five years. The harder challenge, he explains, is long-duration backup power. Battery and energy storage systems can reduce diesel generator usage significantly but cannot yet replace the underlying infrastructure entirely.

“Purchasing renewable energy sends a clear market signal to continue building more of it. The more demand there is, the more investment flows into expanding that infrastructure.”

— Ethan Eisenberg, Director of Energy and Sustainability Management, DataBank

On policy, Eisenberg points to Loudoun County, Virginia as something of a cautionary tale for utilities nationwide, with Dominion Energy’s capacity constraints becoming a reference point for how not to manage rapid data center growth. He also highlights an emerging contrast between markets, with some regions managing growth more effectively than others but with different trade-offs around cost, reliability, and regulatory structure.

Eisenberg closes on an optimistic note: solar projects can be completed in roughly 18 months compared to five or more years for gas turbines, and as renewable penetration increases, the grid becomes both cleaner and less exposed to fuel price volatility.

Read the full Q&A at CityBiz.