Electricity consumption by data centers will more than double by 2030, driven by artificial intelligence applications that will create new challenges for energy security and CO2 emission goals, the IEA said recently.
At the same time, AI can unlock opportunities to produce and consume electricity more efficiently, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its first report on the energy implications of AI.
Data centers represented about 1.5 percent of global electricity consumption in 2024, but that has increased by 12 percent annually over the past five years.
Generative AI requires colossal computing power to process information accumulated in gigantic databases.
Together, the United States, Europe, and China currently account for about 85 percent of data center consumption.
Big tech companies increasingly recognize their growing need for power. Google last year signed a deal to get electricity from small nuclear reactors to help power its part in the artificial intelligence race.
Microsoft is to use energy from new reactors at Three Mile Island, the site of America's worst nuclear accident, when it went through a meltdown in 1979. Amazon also signed an accord last year to use nuclear power for its data centers.
At the current rate, data centers will consume about three percent of global energy by 2030, the report said.
