AI is now a fixture in the digital landscape, and its impact on global data centre energy consumption continues to intensify. Data centres, at the heart of AI infrastructure, are seeing a dramatic rise in power and resource demands. The latest International Energy Agency (IEA) research explains that data centres consumed between 240 and 340 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in 2022 alone, representing about 1-1.3% of global electricity demand.
The explosive growth of AI models, such as OpenAI’s GPT series, is putting unprecedented strain on data centre resources. This includes not only electricity but also water, which is used in cooling and energy production processes. And we all know overuse of water is a critical issue for society. As AI continues to proliferate across digital platforms, its energy consumption is growing by 20-40% annually, with tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta accounting for a large portion of this impact.
Reports highlight these concerns. A recent joint investigation by the Guardian and SourceMaterial found that the rising water demands of data centres are increasingly creating severe environmental challenges, particularly in areas facing water scarcity. Meanwhile a new IEA (International Energy Agency) forecast has predicted that energy demands from AI will quadruple by 2030, further exacerbating the pressure on the global power grid. Clearly, there is a need to address the intensifying resource demands of AI while mitigating its environmental impact.
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