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Abu Dhabi and US firms form $25bn power joint venture

20 March 2025

Abu Dhabi-based critical infrastructure-focused sovereign investor ADQ and US-headquartered Energy Capital Partners (ECP) have agreed to establish a 50:50 partnership to build new power generation and energy infrastructure.

ECP is the largest private owner of power generation and renewable facilities in the US.

The firms plan to make total capital investments of more than $25bn across 25GW-worth of projects, with the US as the primary focus.

The combined initial capital contribution from the partners is expected to amount to $5bn.

“The partnership will focus on serving the needs of data centres and industrial centres in the US and selected other international markets over the long-term,” ADQ said in a statement on 19 March, a day after UAE national security adviser and Abu Dhabi deputy ruler, Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, met with US President Donald Trump at the White House.

ADQ said the partnership aims to service the growing power needs of data centres, hyperscale cloud companies and other energy-intensive industries.

“As the continuity and quality of power supply is crucial for these high-growth industries, the need for captive power plants that are in proximity is often a prerequisite,” ADQ said.

The partnership is focused on meeting these needs over the long term, with its mandate including greenfield development, new build and expansion opportunity projects.

A portion of the capital may also be allocated to opportunities in selected other international markets.

The statement cited a recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) stating that the world’s electricity consumption is forecast to rise at its fastest pace.

The growing need for data centres and industrial electrification partly account for the surging consumption.

In the US, for instance, a substantial increase in electricity demand is expected to add the equivalent of California's current power consumption to the national total over the next three years.

Recent research also forecasts that global power demand from data centres will increase by 50% by 2027 and by as much as 165% by the end of the decade, driven by the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-density data centres.

The US Department of Energy estimates that data centre load growth has tripled over the past decade and is projected to double or triple by 2028.

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Jennifer Aguinaldo

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