Research
Global data center electricity demand is on track to more than double by 2030—driven overwhelmingly by AI—while announced FDI in the sector exceeded $270 billion in 2025, making it one of the largest recipients of new foreign investment worldwide; yet grid upgrade costs triggered by this growth are routinely distributed across all ratepayers rather than borne by the facilities causing them, and permanent tax exemptions in multiple U.S. states cost over $100 million annually with minimal permanent job creation. The central unresolved tension is whether data centers accelerate decarbonization—as major renewable PPA buyers—or entrench fossil infrastructure, with utilities planning up to 100 GW of new gas capacity specifically to serve AI demand, a divergence that reflects genuine regional variation rather than mere framing differences. Readers should note that the briefing's source base skews toward institutional and market-oriented analysis, with labor, community-stakeholder, and redistributive perspectives underrepresented—a gap that is load-bearing given that cost allocation and local economic benefit are among the briefing's most contested claims.
Data center demand is accelerating rapidly, with ... and 2025 underscore that developers' expectations are anchored in observed shifts in grid planning.
Of the $44.8 billion of FDI sunk into data centres in 2022, more than $20 billion headed to Europe. At present, Germany and the UK are making ...
Today, solar energy, land-based wind energy, battery storage, and energy efficiency are some of the most rapidly scalable and cost competitive ...
Given the national security implications of AI, we expect a concerted effort to create an AI-friendly environment through a strategic mix of ...
Data centers in Texas will impact electricity bills with higher demand charges, higher energy rates and infrastructure costs.
One way is channelling the heat generated from data centres into local homes and businesses. Leading countries by number of data centers as of March 2025.
We calculate that companies across the compute power value chain will need to invest $5.2 trillion into data centers by 2030 to meet worldwide ...
Owner-operated data centers provide faster decision-making, flexible terms, and customer-focused service compared to REIT-owned facilities, ...
By 2021, the Irish electricity system had reached the limits of what it could absorb. creating a genuine risk of blackouts,
Strategic autonomy involves securing digital infrastructure, protecting data, and ensuring control over critical technological inputs.
Data centers' global electricity consumption is expected to more than double by 2030, increasing concerns about the impact that such rapidly growing demand will ...
FDI flows to developed economies jumped 43% to an estimated $728 billion in 2025, reflecting the concentration of strategic, technology-driven ...
data centers act as grid stabilizers “by harnessing their demand response capabilities, implementing on-site renewables or distributed energy,
If utilities add 100 GW of new gas facilities, it could potentially result in more than 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually ...
As Europe pushes to become an AI continent, Germany's infrastructure boom is already exposing serious strain on its energy supply, ...
Cumulative investment commitments have crossed USD 126 billion, with USD 56.4 billion deployed in 2025 alone, numbers that place India alongside ...
Learn more about data center sustainability and how our energy-efficient solutions increase operational effectiveness while minimizing environmental impact.
40% of data centers in the US are powered by gas, and more companies are using on-site generators that can be less efficient and more polluting ...
China aims to supercharge its core computing capabilities, targeting an increase of over one-third to either match or surpass the United States.
“The narrative is starting to change to realizing we can bring stability and resiliency to the grid by working with CPower and others to flex ...
The large volume of wastewater from data centers may overwhelm existing local facilities, which were not designed to handle such a high volume.
'87 Subsequently, in 2025, this policy was formalized by requiring all new data centres to obtain 80 per cent of electricity from renewables, a ...
Hanwha Data Centers explores renewable energy for data centers, including solar and wind. Discover solutions to meet AI power demands.
The paper provides an overview of the current data center and grid landscape followed by a discussion of potential engineering and policy ...
In 2024, Google's Council Bluffs, Iowa data center consumed 1.3 billion gallons of potable water. (~3.7 million gallons per day). This is similar to the amount ...
Projections indicate that data centers could account for about 4 – 5 % of total U.S. electricity demand by 2026 – a share that is expected to ...
Utilities may subsidize data center growth by shifting costs to other ratepayers: Harvard Law paper. “The public faces significant risks that ...
Demands for more computing power in the GenAI race is giving rise to new infrastructural geographies with distinct monopolies in their production networks.
In this Roadmap presentation, coauthors examine data centers' energy use, strategies for improving data centers' energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions ...
These developments abroad could serve as models for regulatory action in the US, reflecting a desire for consistent and up-to-date rules.
Utilities argue that these large data center customers help spread fixed system costs across a larger demand base, potentially reducing per-unit ...
This blog post analyzes the escalating investments in AI data centers by major cloud providers – Google, Amazon AWS, and Microsoft – focusing on 2024 spending ...
CHIPS Act incentives will help sustain the United States' advantages as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing.
AI-era scaling and competition for mega-sites, grid access, and permits are giving regions new leverage.
ASEAN's evolving data center landscape is unlocking new business models, investment strategies and infrastructure innovations.
White House wins pledge from tech firms including Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft to fund power for AI data centers in 2025 alone.
The chip market is heavily exposed to AI chips for data centers, with up to roughly half of industry revenues expected to come from that market ...
Specifically, data centers clustered at existing peering points through which all customers' traffic flowed. Then, as cloud computing gained momentum, data ...
The Green DC Roadmap charts the sustainable, continued growth of DCs and supports Singapore's ambitions to grow the digital economy.
This study explores potential barriers to energy-efficiency investments in data centers. Given the scarcity of empirical data in this context, we conducted ...
The global data center power market is expected to grow substantially, projected to rise from USD 35.14 billion in 2025 to USD 50.51 billion by 2030, ...
Driving sustainable innovation for society. We're bringing more clean energy online and advancing responsible water use at our data centers across the globe.
Myth 5: Data Centers Are Great for the Environment. On the other hand, it's also a fallacy to overestimate the sustainability of data centers. Even in an age ...
Explore the impact of data centers on energy use, costs, and myths while understanding their critical role in our digital world and economy.
According to the International Energy Agency, data centers are projected to consume between 650-1,050 TWh by 2026, with these facilities ...
Nicol Turner Lee and Darrell West discuss various considerations around data centers, including energy, workforce, and climate implications.
Fact: The use of renewable energy by data centers is dependent on the capabilities of local utility companies. Some data centers are ...
Data centers tend to cluster where fiber optic networks and energy resources are abundant, at peak times potentially coming into competition for water with ...
When risks materialize as unanticipated declines in value and capital is too costly to reallocate, assets are “stranded” (van der Ploeg and ...
Here's how governments are competing for digital infrastructure investment using tools that make power costs look like pocket change.
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