Who makes hydro for AI data centers

Hydro is the oldest firm renewable and the one least likely to be newly built where AI campuses are being sited. It appears in this catalog mainly because existing hydro is heavily contracted by data centers — the Pacific Northwest, Quebec and the Nordics attracted large facilities precisely because cheap firm hydro was already there — and because pumped storage remains the dominant form of long-duration storage on most systems. The equipment side is turbines, generators, gates and control systems, supplied by a short list of heavy engineering firms who also serve pumped storage. New greenfield hydro in developed markets is rare, constrained by geography, environmental permitting and public opposition; the live business is refurbishment — replacing runners and generators in plants that are decades old, which raises output from existing sites without new dams — and pumped storage, where interest has recovered as systems need long-duration flexibility. For an AI campus the practical significance is regional. Where hydro exists, it has usually already been contracted, and a new large load competes for it against everything else on that system; drought years reduce output in exactly the way a firm power contract does not anticipate. What to look for is whether a supplier's data center exposure is new build, refurbishment or pumped storage, and whether a site's hydro supply is contracted firm or as-available.