U.S. Data Centers Face Doubling Energy Consumption by 2028 Amid AI Boom
U.S. data centers consumed approximately 176 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy in 2023, accounting for about 4.4% of the nation's total electricity use, according to a report by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Projections indicate that data center energy consumption could double or triple by 2028, primarily driven by the increasing energy demands of Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure. The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts that global data center electricity consumption will rise from 447 TWh in 2025 to over 1,200 TWh by 2030, with AI-focused data centers experiencing even faster growth, potentially tripling their electricity consumption between 2025 and 2030. This surge in demand is attributed to AI infrastructure consuming significantly more energy and computing resources than traditional IT systems, as neural networks require billions of operations for a single response. A single advanced server rack in a data center could demand as much power as 65 households by 2027. Nearly half ... 
