The global electricity demand of the data centers is expected to be greatly doubled in the next five years, largely driven by the generalization of artificial intelligence (AI). This follows from a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) published on Thursday.
By the end of the decade, about half of the world demand for energy centers are expected to come from renewable energy, such as photovoltaic, wind and hydraulic solar. Combined, renewables are the fastest growing electricity source for data centers. The following important energy sources in 2030 will be natural gas and coal, while the role of nuclear energy is also expected to be more prominent.
As the following graph shows, various energy sources will be needed to meet the growing electricity needs of world data centers. The composition of the electricity sources used to feed the data centers depends on the availability and competitiveness of costs of the different sources in the respective markets. In China, for example, coal represents a greater part of the generation of electricity than in the US, which has a greater proportion of natural gas.
In both countries, nuclear energy will increase considerably, as well as solar and wind. In China, the generation of photovoltaic solar electricity is expected to increase from 7 Teravatios-Hora in 2025 to 83 Teravatios-Hora in 2035, not far from the 97 Teravatios-Hora of the United States in 2035. As for wind China in 2035. Meanwhile, the United States will gradually reduce its electricity generation from coal, and data centers are expected to experience a decrease in 28 Teravatios-Hora to 7 Teravatios-Hora.
The report indicates that the demand for electricity for data centers will not be felt equally. For example, in the United States it will represent almost half of the growth of the demand for electricity, while in Japan it will mean more than half and in Malaysia a fifth of the demand.
This relationship between energy and has raised doubts about the possible environmental impact of technology. According to the report, data centers around the world currently generate about 180 mt of indirect CO2 emissions from electricity consumption, which is equivalent to approximately 0.5% of all released combustion emissions. IEA experts explain that, although on the one hand technology requires generating electricity and, therefore, more emissions to function, these could be compensated to some extent if AI to make systems more efficient and accelerate innovation in energy technologies such as batteries and photovoltaic solar energy.
The executive director of the EA, Fatih Birol, declared in this regard: «With the rise of AI, the energy sector is at the forefront of one of the most important technological revolutions of our time. AI is a potentially incredibly powerful tool, but it depends on us – our societies, governments and companies – how we use it ».
According to the IEA, these data are based on the combination of electricity fuels consumed physically by the data centers (considering both the generation in situ and the electricity received through the network, taking into account the combination of fuels of the local electrical systems in which they are located), and not in the contractual combination of the different data centers operators.