Power for AI: data centres are growing faster than the grids
AI · not reviewedWritten with AI from the sources listed, not yet editorially reviewed.
Data centre electricity demand rose 17% in 2025 and is projected to double by 2030; bottlenecks in grid connections, turbines and transformers are becoming a location factor.
The essentials in five points
- According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), data centre electricity consumption rose 17% in 2025 and that of AI-focused data centres 50% — against global electricity growth of about 3%.
- By 2030, consumption is projected to roughly double to about 950 TWh, around 3% of global electricity demand; AI-focused data centres are set to triple to 465 TWh.
- The IEA names supply chains for gas turbines, transformers and chips, grid connections and overloaded permitting as bottlenecks.
- The five largest technology companies invested more than USD 400 billion in 2025; a further 75% increase is expected for 2026.
- In Germany, new data centres have had to make at least 10% of their waste heat usable since July 2026, rising to 20% by 2028; at the same time, efficiency targets (PUE) were relaxed.
What this means for businesses
For your own AI infrastructure, power is becoming the scarcest resource next to chips: grid connection, waste-heat concept and power contract belong at the start of planning, not the end. The same applies to batteries for robot fleets and storage — China’s export controls on lithium-battery and graphite-anode materials are suspended only until 10 November 2026.
Sources · 4
- Internationale Energieagentur (IEA) · April 2026Data centre electricity use surged in 2025, even with tightening bottlenecks driving a scramble for solutions
- Enlit World · 17 Apr 2026AI and data centre electricity use continue to surge, IEA finds
- Börse Express · 01 Jul 2026Rechenzentren: Neue Abwärme-Pflicht ab Juli und 2,9 Mrd. Euro
- JD Supra (Kanzleibeitrag) · 14 Nov 2025China Suspends Export Controls on Certain Critical Minerals and Related Items
Links open the original source in a new tab. Figures from company statements are labelled as vendor or company figures in the text.
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