Share this
Data centers have significant energy requirements because of the enormous scale and scope of their operations. Based on this, knowing where and when they’ll come online helps power traders, utilities, and asset developers plan for the long term and search for opportunities.
As we saw when we analyzed Atlas Power’s data usage, one facility can significantly alter the power landscape. We’ve explored data centers’ current energy use and efficiency, and now we’ll look ahead to what we know about the data centers planned to come online and their energy usage.
Just How Much Power Does a Data Center Use, and What Is Projected?
Currently around the world, data centers use approximately 2% of all electricity. The International Energy Agency said that data centers used 460 terawatt hours of power in 2022, a number that the agency estimates could rise to 1,000 terawatt hours by 2026. For perspective, that’s roughly the power use of the entire country of Japan.
Experts project that the amount of power data centers use in the US will double from 17 gigawatts (GW) in 2022 to 35 GW by 2030. This means that data centers could use 9% of all US electricity by 2030.
The rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are helping drive this exponential growth around the globe.
Where Are Data Centers Coming Online?
Right now, the US leads the way in the number of data centers globally, with more than ten times the volume of any other country according to Statista.
Source: Statista
Planned US data centers are concentrated on the East Coast, with a strong concentration in Northern Virginia.
According to our Infrastructure Insights Dataset, 26% of the announced upcoming data centers will be in Virginia, with Texas following at 13%.
Who Are the Major Players?
According to our Infrastructure Insights Dataset, the top five companies with the highest numbers of announced upcoming data centers are Microsoft, Amazon, Stack Infrastructure, Alphabet (Google), and Meta. Together, they make up almost 30% of upcoming projects in the US and Canada.
|
Holding Company or Parent Organization |
Number of Data Center Projects |
Percent of Total |
|
Amazon |
37 |
8% |
|
Microsoft |
38 |
9% |
|
Stack Infrastructure |
18 |
4% |
|
Alphabet, Inc. |
16 |
4% |
|
Meta |
16 |
4% |
Source: Infrastructure Insights Dataset, a part of Yes Energy
Alphabet Inc. maps its upcoming data centers globally and has planned 15 around the world in addition to the 16 in North America.
What This Means for Power Markets
Goldman Sachs estimates that the US needs about 47 GW of power generation capacity to support data centers’ growth in power demand through 2030. The company projects that gas will meet 60% of the demand, with renewables filling the rest.
Several companies are looking at expanding to meet demand. For example, Constellation Energy is thinking about building next-generation nuclear plants on its current sites to meet data center power demand, and Williams is looking to build out natural gas facilities.
Conclusion
Rather than waste time combing through copious records, you can stay abreast of any changes to these planned data centers with the Infrastructure Insights Dataset. This database shows a planned data center’s projected launch date, owner, location, status, and more, all updated by a team of US infrastructure database experts.
Not only can Yes Energy help with changes in data center information but it also can help with impacts to the grid. EnCompass can forecast the effects of future data center construction to determine how transmission and generation assets, traditional congestion patterns, and energy prices could change.
Want to learn more? Talk to our team or request a demo of this extensive and quickly, continually updated database.
About the Author: Laura Fletcher is on the Yes Energy product team as an associate product manager. Prior to joining the team, Laura studied environmental engineering at Georgia Tech. She started working with energy data as a college intern and she has worked on various consulting projects, annual market forecasts, client relations, and database management.
