On the Optimal Co-location of Data Centers with Renewable Energy Sources in SIDS

The rapid expansion of data centers presents both economic opportunities and systemic risks for Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS). This paper develops a PyPSA-based capacity expansion framework for optimal co-location of data centers with renewable energy infrastructure, incorporating behind-the-meter battery storage, workload flexibility (70%/30% inflexible/flexible split), and multi-bus transmission topology. Two case studies are examined: Trinidad & Tobago (single-bus, 92,MW Brechin Castle solar, 5,MW data center) and Jamaica (4-bus 138,kV JPS network, 15,MW data center at Kingston). Jamaica's optimum deploys 405,MW solar, 278,MW wind, 800,MWh grid-scale BESS, and 84,MWh behind-the-meter BESS, achieving 42.5% renewable penetration; Trinidad's gas-anchored optimum builds no new RE, and a sensitivity analysis shows solar entering at gas costs above 65--70/MWh, a carbon price of 25--50/tCO 2, or solar CAPEX of 800/kW. A post-hoc distributionally robust stress test evaluates hurricane resilience, and a novel 10-factor siting framework addresses the regulatory gap in SIDS that lack data-center-specific zoning. Results show that energy-optimal locations may score poorly on societal criteria---noise, freshwater stress, zoning readiness. This demonstrates the need for integrated planning tools in small island contexts.