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Will Global Data Center Electricity Consumption Reach at Least 1,000 Terawatt Hours in 2030?

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Last Updated 4 weeks ago

McKinsey & Company"According to McKinsey analysis, the power demand for data centers is expected to reach 1,400 terawatt-hours by 2030, equivalent to 4 percent of total global power demand."Aug 21, 2026

Mckinsey

Uptime Institute"The evaluation of multiple data center energy consumption projections suggests that demand could grow from 400 TWh in 2023 to 1,000 TWh in 2030."Mar 12, 2025

Uptime Institute Blog

IEAOur Base Case finds that global electricity consumption for data centres is projected to double to reach around 945 TWh by 2030 in the Base Case, representing just under 3% of total global electricity consumption in 2030.Oct 30, 2025

Iea

Rystad Energy“Our first number is that global data center demand is expected to hit about 1,250 terawatt hours globally by 2030.”May 20, 2026

Rystad Energy

Deloitte"But as power-intensive generative AI (gen AI) training and inference continues to grow faster than other uses and applications, global data center electricity consumption could roughly double to 1,065 TWh by 2030."Jun 23, 2026

Deloitte Insights

Statista“Statista forecasts global data-center electricity consumption to reach 950 TWh in 2030.”May 20, 2026

Statista

arXivProjections indicate that global data center electricity demand may increase from approximately 415 TWh in 2024 to nearly 945 TWh by 2030, with AI workloads accounting for a disproportionate share of this growth.Dec 24, 2025

arXiv.org

GECF"In the RCS, data centre electricity consumption rises from 415 TWh in 2024 to around 1,543 TWh by 2030, increasing its share of final electricity demand from 1.6% to 4.2%."Apr 13, 2026

Gecf

Schneider Electric Blog“Schneider Electric forecasts global data-center and edge electricity consumption will reach 1,693 TWh in 2030.”Aug 21, 2026

Moore’s law and IoT combined cause data center energy needs going up to 752 TWh in 2030, and about 2.13% of global electricity available.Aug 19, 2026

ScienceDirect

S&P Global“In the S&P Global Energy 'power sector perspective' scenario, global data center power demand reaches 1,550 TWh by 2030, roughly equal to total power consumption across Latin America in 2030.”Aug 21, 2026

Spglobal

Gartner“With data center power electricity consumption estimated to reach over 1,200TWh by 2030, grid supply will be insufficient to meet the demands of future data center construction, affecting all data center users.”Aug 21, 2026

Gartner