SUSTAINABILITY
The International Energy Agency’ s Key Questions on Energy and AI, published in April 2026, puts global data centre electricity consumption at 485TWh in 2025, up 17 % on the previous year. Consumption from AI-focused data centres rose 50 %. The agency projects around 950TWh by 2030, roughly 3 % of global electricity demand, with associated emissions doubling to around 350 million tonnes by 2035.
Efficiency is improving, albeit more slowly. The Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2026 recorded an average
PUE of 1.52 across responding facilities, or 1.36 when weighted by capacity. As new facilities report PUEs well below the industry average, the measure of sustainable infrastructure is extending to water, materials, heat and grid integration.
Cooling AI without draining water supplies AI hardware concentrates heat into a small footprint. The IEA calculates that AI server power density rose elevenfold between 2020 and 2025 and expects a further fourfold rise by 2027.
70 October 2026