Data centers will account for nearly half of electricity demand growth in the US between now and 2030, fueled by the rise of AI, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
By the end of the decade, the US will use more electricity for data centers than for the production of aluminum, steel, cement, chemicals and “all other energy-intensive goods combined,” if the predictions are correct.
The news comes as Big Tech is making huge investments in AI-focused data centers across the US. Over the past year, we’ve seen Elon Musk’s xAI begin plans to expand its Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, to at least a million GPUs—much to the displeasure of residents who claim its gas-fired onsite turbines are polluting the local air.
Meanwhile, ChatGPT maker OpenAI announced in January that it is set to invest $500 billion in building data centers across the US as part of its “Stargate” program.
Globally, the report predicts the overall energy consumption of data centers is set to more than double by 2030. Data centres will reportedly use 945 terawatt-hours (TWh) annually in 2030, more than the whole of Japan, up from 415 TWh in 2024. But this huge spike in energy consumption isn’t set to be distributed equally. The report found that the United States will account for by far the largest share of this projected increase, followed by China.
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This AI-driven demand for energy from data centers could cause knock-on environmental issues, according to some academics. Commenting on the news, Alex de Vries, a researcher at VU Amsterdam, told the science journal Nature that it “could be a serious risk for our ability to achieve our climate goals.” De Vries believes this increased need for energy could “increase our reliance, or at least extend, our reliance on fossil fuels.”
In April 2024, Robert Stoner, an MIT researcher told PCMag that energy companies might be reluctant to build enough renewable energy to fuel new AI data centers.
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“Utilities really don’t like adding renewable power plants to their systems,” said Stoner. “They stress them, they add a lot of peak current at times of the day that are not the same as they are if the system doesn’t have those sources.”
Many US politicians are also critiquing the impact of these new AI-led data centers on local energy infrastructure and the environment, and trying to roll out legislation at the state level.
In December 2024, Sen. Kristen Gonzalez introduced the New York State Sustainable Data Centers Act. This would force data center operators to fuel their facilities with amounts of renewable energy that align with the state’s environmental goals and produce an annual report on both their water and energy consumption.
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