James Hamilton on Datacenter Renewable Power Done Right ( back in 2013 ):
how can running a low-scale power plant on a fossil fuel possibly be green and is on-site generation really going to be the most environmentally conscious means of powering data centers? Most datacenters lack space for large on-site generation facilities, most datacenter operators don’t have the skill, and generally the most efficient power generation plants are far bigger than a single datacenter could ever consume on its worst day.
His key point about on-site power generation at datacenters:
I still find myself skeptical that the world leaders in operating efficient and reliable power plans are going to be datacenter operators.
This may be a legitimate concern. Then again, fifteen years ago I wouldn’t have guessed that Amazon would come to define pay as you go servers and services ( “the cloud” ).