IEA
3 storiesThe IEA (International Energy Agency) is an intergovernmental energy body based in Paris that publishes statistics and forecasts on energy demand and electricity use. Recent coverage cites its estimates that data centers used about 415 TWh in 2024, roughly 1.5% of global demand, possibly rising to 945 TWh by 2030, alongside stories on tech companies' electricity growth and the environmental costs of health AI.
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The report examines AI data centers' electricity, water and land consumption. The IEA estimates data centers used about 415 TWh in 2024, roughly 1.5% of global demand, possibly rising to 945 TWh by 2030; Rystad Energy says cooling used 222 billion litres of water in 2025. Finland police are investigating the clearing of 330 hectares of forest for a Google data center, Norway fears power shortages, and US localities weigh restrictions.
Speaking at GOTO Copenhagen, Charles Humble argued sustainability should be a top-level architectural concern, citing IEA data that combined electricity use by Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta more than doubled from 2017 to 2021 to about 72 TWh. Microsoft's 2024 report shows emissions up 30% since 2020; Google's rose 13% year on year in 2023.
A paper titled Green Artificial Intelligence in Health Applications argues that healthcare AI's energy and data-center water costs should rank alongside privacy, bias and fairness concerns. The IEA estimates data-center power use will double by 2030, equal to Japan's total electricity consumption.
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The A.I. Daily
AI infrastructure's resource toll: soaring data center energy and water use
