The latest IDCA Data Center Report reveals that data centres now have a global footprint of 67.7GW, a growth of 36 percent over the past two years, and they now consume two per cent of the world’s electricity.

Not surprisingly, the US is the world’s largest data centre location, with 43 per cent of global consumption. Data centres now consume 29.2GW of electricity in the US, or six per cent of the nation’s electricity. However, the UK is close behind, at 5.8 per cent, and Germany hits nearly ten per cent.

The world’s other Top Five data centre consumers are:

China, at 8.5GW, consuming 0.8 per cent of nation’s electricity.
Germany, at 5.5GW, consuming 9.5 per cent of the nation’s electricity.
UK at 2.0GW, consuming 5.8 per cent of the nation’s electricity.
Japan at 1.7GW, consuming 1.5 per cent of the nation’s electricity.

With AI set to transform data centre use and capacity, the need to make them ‘greener’ will be imperative.

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