Rising electricity consumption by data centres raises concerns among politicians and the public

According to statistics published by the International Data Center Association (IDCA), data centres already consume 6% of electricity in the UK and the US. In Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, the figure is as high as 9% of electricity supplies. The association warns of growing public and political concern.

There are currently an estimated 10,000 data centres worldwide. Among the largest is Microsoft's new data centre, covering approximately 111,500 square metres in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, which the company describes as the most powerful in the world.

Nearly one trillion dollars is being invested in data centres worldwide. That is almost 1% of the global economy, according to a report by the International Data Center Association (IDCA). But the amount of electricity consumed by data centres is also growing. Over the past two years, it has risen by 15% worldwide.

The Guardian reports that the UK, where data centres consume 5.9% of electricity, and the US, where the share is 6%, are well above the global average of 2%. The use of technology in Singapore and Lithuania places an even greater strain on electricity supplies, as data centres now consume 19% and 11%, respectively, of the energy from those countries' national grids.

The situation in Europe

Data centres in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland have surpassed the 9% consumption mark.

European data centre consumption stands at 2.5% of total electricity supplies.However, a study by the US company Goldman Sachs, reported by oEnergetice.cz in 2024, said that by 2033 data centres could account for 8 to 14% of new electricity demand.

The IDCA report says that “countries are beginning to see significant public and political opposition once data centre consumption reaches 5% of national grid consumption.”

The IDCA also said that rising energy consumption worldwide is “causing public and political concern” and called on technology companies to be more transparent about their plans for new data centres in order to ease “public frustration”.

Transparency

In response to rising energy consumption, Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, said that “greater transparency is needed about the amount of water and energy consumed by data centres, along with proper environmental impact assessments and a ban on building new polluting power plants to power AI.”

In contrast to these recommendations, The Guardian reported this week that developers working for Google had significantly misrepresented how much two proposed AI data centres would contribute to the UK's overall emissions.

The IDCA data confirm estimates by the International Energy Agency that energy consumption by data centres rose by 17% in 2025, outpacing the 3% growth in global electricity demand.

It was also found that 13% of US data centre consumption comes from unused “zombie” services—applications that have been launched but never switched off, despite no longer being used. This wasteful consumption amounts to more than 3 GW of power. The report says this type of inefficiency is evident worldwide, and grows as the share of cloud services increases.