Ameresco reported a record $1.8 billion in new project awards during the second quarter of 2026.
Approximately $1.2 billion of those awards were tied to data centers.
The numbers provide another indication of how rapidly AI infrastructure investment is expanding beyond servers and into the energy systems required to support them.
Data Centers Drive Ameresco’s Record Awards
Ameresco now has five data-center power projects in its awarded backlog.
Overall backlog climbed 32% year over year to a record $6.73 billion, while awarded backlog in its Power Infrastructure business increased 65% to $4.4 billion.
The scale of those projects demonstrates just how much energy infrastructure modern data centers require.
Power and Cooling Are Becoming One Infrastructure Problem
A new AI campus may require dedicated power generation, energy storage, electrical distribution and large-scale cooling infrastructure.
Those systems can no longer be planned independently.
Every additional megawatt of computing capacity creates additional heat that must be removed, which in turn creates more demand for power.
What This Means for HVAC
That convergence is bringing energy-service companies closer to traditional HVAC markets.
Mechanical contractors, controls companies, electrical contractors and energy-infrastructure providers are increasingly working on different parts of the same problem.
For HVAC businesses, the data-center boom is therefore becoming much larger than a cooling-equipment opportunity.
It is turning into a broader infrastructure market.
