Energy shortages threaten to restrict 40% of AI data centers by 2027

“Total ICT electricity demands will exceed 9% of total global energy production by 2030, up from less than 3% today,” Johnson pointed out. “To satisfy this increase in demand, ICT applications would have to take considerable amounts of electricity from other areas, such as residential, commercial or industrial users.”

To put it in perspective, the Gartner report said that the total demand for ICT power is projected to grow at a 25% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2030, while global power generation will only increase at a CAGR of 3%.

“This means that while total ICT power demand accounts for less than 3% of the total power generation in 2024, it will account for over 9% by 2030,” the report said.

Specifically, from the data center perspective, in 2021, the additional demand for ICT accounted for a manageable 4% of the additional generation capacity globally. By 2023, driven by the increase in hyperscale data centers, incremental ICT demand was 20% of total new generation, and this is projected to exceed 70% by 2030.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects in its 2024 analysis that global electricity demand from data centers will grow by over 75% between 2022 and 2026, with a high-end estimate suggesting a possible increase of 128%.

French multinational Schneider Electric, that earns one third of it’s revenue from data center business, also echoes the same sentiment. In its whitepaper it has warned that the demands of power and cooling for AI are beyond what standard data center designs can handle and says new designs are necessary.