Data centers, which power much of our computing equipment, used only 1.9% of US electricity in 2018, but that number has more than doubled to 3.7% today. By 2028, they could consume up to 12% of America’s power, according to a new report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The 2024 US Data Center Energy Usage Report aims to understand how the rise of artificial intelligence will impact the country’s energy use. As AI technology advances, data centers’ power demands are expected to grow significantly. These warehouses of high-performance hardware burn large amounts of electricity, making them a key focus for researchers.
According to Arman Shehabi, lead researcher on the report, “There’s so much difference in the industry between when we looked at it in 2016 and when we look at it now.” The tech industry has poured billions of dollars into building massive data centers to train AI models. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have invested heavily in computing clusters made up of hundreds of thousands of high-end chips.
The report estimates that data centers’ electricity demand will range from 6.7% to 12% of US consumption by 2028. However, the researchers also found significant growth in water usage, with an estimated 150-275 billion liters (or 72.6 billion gallons) needed by 2028.
The report highlights the need for more research and initiatives to address data centers’ energy needs. The “hyperscale” facilities used by tech giants are expected to see the most growth, with Virginia currently leading as the primary hub. With US electric utilities reporting that data centers are a main source of customer growth, it’s clear that the industry must prepare for an “economy-wide expansion of electricity infrastructure.”
Source: https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/berkeley-report-data-centers-energy-19994091.php