Powering the digital economy: The global expansion of data centres and its energy implications

Uniunea Europeana

The global data centre market has expanded massively over the past 15 years, with the US firmly in the lead in terms of both number of facilities and computational capacity. While data centre electricity consumption remains relatively limited at the global level, it is growing rapidly, with notable implications in some areas for local electricity demand. This column presents evidence of how the geographic concentration of data centres can create localised pressures on electricity prices and