IEA says data centre electricity use could double by 2026

2024-01-24 · Publisher : Agence internationale de l'énergie · Domain : Cloud & DevOps

In Electricity 2024, the IEA estimates data centres used about 460 TWh in 2022 and that their consumption could exceed 1,000 TWh in 2026, with AI and cryptocurrencies as drivers.

### Background On 24 January 2024, the International Energy Agency (IEA) publishes **Electricity 2024**, its annual analysis and forecast to 2026. The report devotes an analysis to the growing weight of data centres. According to the agency, these facilities consumed about 460 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2022, and their consumption could exceed 1,000 TWh in 2026, roughly the electricity consumption of Japan. Taken together, data centres, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies could see their consumption double by 2026. ### Key facts - Baseline estimate: about 460 TWh consumed by data centres worldwide in 2022. - Projection: more than 1,000 TWh possible in 2026, depending on the pace of deployment, efficiency gains and AI and cryptocurrency trends. - IEA comparison: a level close to Japan's annual electricity consumption. - Context: global electricity demand is expected to grow 3.4% a year on average through 2026. - Recommendation: updated regulation and efficiency progress will be decisive to moderate the increase. ### Why it matters A figure-based picture, from a reference body, of the link between AI and energy. For a services firm or an IT department, compute capacity is no longer only a budget question: electricity availability and price enter the choice of cloud regions, providers and architectures. The report gives a frame to question a provider about its energy supply. ### Takeaway The numerical starting point of the debate on AI's electricity use, taken up and refined by the IEA in 2025 and 2026.

Tags : Datacenter, Énergie, IA, GreenOps