By 2030, data centers will account for nearly 3% of the world's projected electricity use, with 935 trillion watt-hours. If data centers were a country, the country would be projected to rank sixth-highest in power use in 2030. That would produce nearly 440 million tons of carbon dioxide, the report said. The study focused on energy use and didn't examine the massive amount of water used to cool data centers. "We're seeing scales comparable to nations," says study co-author Kaveh Madani, a water scientist and director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health in Canada. "The demand is enormous."
Much of the growth of data centers is being driven by AI. About 20% of data centers' energy is currently due to artificial intelligence, but that should grow to 40% by 2030, the report said. The report is significant due to the credibility of the UN, says Fengqi You, a Cornell University energy engineering professor who directs the college's AI sustainability issues. "Its value is that a UN institution is putting carbon, water, land, life-cycle impacts, and environmental justice into one frame" for an issue often shrouded in secrecy, says You, who wasn't part of the report.
