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Methodology & sources

Every marker needs a provenance trail

The map is deliberately conservative: a smaller set of explicit, source-backed records is more useful than a large list that blurs live, planned and self-reported claims.

Method version 1.0 · Published 15 Jul 2026

1. Scope

Sunny Data Center Observatory indexes selected large, hyperscale, AI-oriented and otherwise publicly significant data-centre campuses in India. It is not a complete inventory of edge, captive, government or security-sensitive facilities. Coordinates may be campus-level or intentionally approximate city-level points.

2. One campus, one phase, one status

A campus and its buildings or phases may have different milestones. Where a source allows it, operating, under-construction and announced capacity are stored separately. A future campus envelope is never counted as live capacity.

Status order

Operational → under construction → permitted/approved → announced/MoU → proposed/early planning → paused/cancelled. A record uses the most advanced milestone supported by a dated source.

3. Capacity remains attached to its metric

IT load, critical IT load, total facility demand, installed electrical infrastructure and a campus build-out envelope are not interchangeable. Each number is stored with its metric, phase, source and date. Unknown values remain unknown rather than inferred from investment size or floor area.

4. Source hierarchy

  1. Project permits and official records: environmental clearance, consent, groundwater, planning, utility and government documents tied to a specific project.
  2. Named operator documents: annual reports, sustainability reports, product pages, exchange filings and dated announcements.
  3. Government policy and parliamentary material: useful for programme-level context, not proof that an individual project is live.
  4. Reputable secondary reporting: a research lead or corroborating source when a primary document cannot yet be found.
  5. Community submissions: private leads that require review and do not become facts simply because they were submitted.

5. Environmental and performance claims

Design PUE is not measured operating PUE. “Renewable” may mean on-site generation, a physical power-purchase agreement, open access or annual certificate matching. “Water positive” does not mean zero local withdrawal. The record should preserve the original claim language and the reporting boundary.

6. Community reports

Reports are private by default. The public statistics endpoint returns only aggregate counts. Contact information, descriptions, exact locations, source URLs, uploads and object-storage keys are never exposed by that endpoint. Nothing is published automatically.

7. Corrections and record history

Material changes should identify what changed, why, when and which source supports the update. A correction does not erase the fact that an earlier classification existed. Read the corrections policy or submit a source through the private report form.

8. Public datasets to integrate next