Geothermal Energy Proposed to Power Middle East AI Hubs
The World Economic Forum highlights Jordan's geothermal potential as a sustainable power source for growing AI infrastructure.
Updated on Oct. 21, 2026 in Data Centers
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The World Economic Forum has identified geothermal resources near Jordan's Dead Sea as a potential power source for artificial intelligence data centers. This proposed infrastructure would utilize subterranean heat for electricity and direct cooling.
Why it matters
Expanding AI capacity requires massive amounts of reliable, continuous power that current regional grids struggle to supply. Geothermal energy offers a high-density, low-land-use solution to support the energy-intensive processing and cooling demands of future data centers.
Engineers propose drilling wells exceeding 2.5 kilometers in depth with horizontal extensions of 1.5 kilometers to capture geothermal heat. This setup uses engineered rock fractures to circulate fluids that transport thermal energy to the surface for power generation.
The players
World Economic Forum
An international non-governmental organization focused on public-private cooperation and policy research across global economic sectors.
The details
The proposed system functions by extracting heat from deep within the Earth, where geothermal reservoirs provide a continuous power supply. This thermal energy can be used to generate electricity and can also support direct cooling for data centers through absorption chillers—devices that use a heat source to provide refrigeration rather than traditional electric compressors. The horizontal well design increases the surface area for heat exchange within high-temperature rock formations.
Timeline
The World Economic Forum published the report on October 21, 2026.
The Tech Race
This proposal positions Jordan and Saudi Arabia as prospective hubs for energy-efficient data center development. It tracks with global efforts to decouple high-performance computing growth from carbon-intensive power grids by leveraging localized, continuous renewable energy.
Operators and infrastructure developers in the Middle East stand to gain a reliable, space-efficient energy source for building high-density AI clusters. While still in the assessment phase, this project suggests a pathway to lower long-term cooling costs for regional data operators.
The takeaway
The move suggests a widening search for baseload renewable power that can sustain the thermal and electrical load of large-scale AI servers. Industry observers should track regional geological surveys or pilot project announcements in Jordan and Saudi Arabia to confirm if these resources move toward commercial viability.
Further reading
Explore the latest developments in infrastructure at Data Centers.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Jordan News | Latest News from Jordan, MENA.
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