6 min readAug 3, 2026 06:30 AM IST First published on: Aug 3, 2026 at 06:21 AM ISTAndhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has proved to be a visionary and investment-friendly politician. He has secured one of India’s largest technology investments in recent years. Google has committed $15 billion to a one-gigawatt AI data centre in Visakhapatnam, expected to be the largest such centre in Asia when it becomes operational in 2028. Such a large data centre will require 24 GWh of power each day. Meeting this demand by diverting power from other consumers, particularly agriculture, could provoke social tensions, while expanding thermal generation would come at an unacceptable environmental cost. Andhra Pradesh will have to look for alternatives like nuclear energy or renewables like solar power. Herein lies an opportunity for agri-households to become participants in the emerging AI economy by generating clean electricity while continuing to cultivate their land. Agrivoltaics enables this dual use of farmland, allowing farmers to produce both food and power while multiplying their incomes.Andhra Pradesh has already introduced a policy innovation that grants data centres a Deemed Distribution Licence (DDL), which allows hyperscale operators to procure and manage their own power rather than draw it as ordinary consumers. However, this innovation needs to be followed up by a series of complementary measures to avoid power cuts for other sectors.