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I'm confused why that would result in more suburbia.

Can you explain?

Because only single-family suburban homes have enough roof space for house dwellers to install renewable power.

Roof space on large apartments isn’t enough to accommodate solar panels providing sufficient energy for every resident.

Sorry, are you discussing residential power use? TFA was about industrial power use.

It does mention residential though:

Industry forecasts show the centers eating up a larger share of U.S. electricity in the years that follow, as demand from residential and smaller commercial facilities stays relatively flat thanks to steadily increasing efficiencies in appliances and heating and cooling systems.

I thought we were discussing data centers, not apartments.

Industry has the same issue, mutatis mutandis. The company across the backyard from me has a five- and six-floor complex of buildings close next to one of the central transport hubs, where it makes hightech radio parts. A nice central place to work, but not even nearly big enough to generate significant renewable power.

The school in the next street is similar: Five floors, very central, but that site will neither generate sun or wind power. It was rebuilt recently. If it were to generate it own power, that renovation would have been a a relocation to one of those spread-out lowrise buildings in suburbia.

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