Data centers could drive up energy demand in New Mexico, experts warn Business

With the rapid development of data centers in the United States, Pew Research Center conducted this study to learn more about energy use at these facilities and its potential impact on Americans. The Center has studied Americans’ attitudes toward and engagement with artificial intelligence, as well as their views on energy issues, for more than a decade. XLU ETF provides exposure to large U.S. utilities, many of which are becoming critical partners to hyperscale data centers. Data center business models – which are pushing AI-data center growth faster than the U.S. can build clean energy to power them – clash with efforts to address climate change, said Scanlan, with the Center for Water Policy at the UW–Milwaukee. U.S. data centers already account for more than 4% of electricity use, and are projected to rise to 12% by 2028. Wisconsin is part of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, grid where roughly 70% of electricity comes from fossil fuels, 14% from nuclear power and the remainder from wind and solar.

Wisconsin Data Centers to Pay All Costs for energy Demand They Create

While data centers have been around for decades, they’ve quickly expanded in recent years to support increasingly popular generative AI models. The commission made other changes to strengthen protections for customers, like expanding which data centers are covered by its ruling, and requiring longer contracts. “Customers should not pay a single cent to subsidize the service of data centers or very large customers. Plough, of the Protect Fredonia Coalition, said right now it feels like a gold rush, with company leaders vying to see who can get data centers up the fastest, no matter the cost to everyone else. For instance, coal plants withdraw about 19,000 gallons per megawatt hour, while natural gas uses roughly 2,800 gallons per megawatt hour. In Wisconsin, power production is the state’s largest water user, accounting for 74% of total water use over a 10-year period from 2011 to 2021.

Globally, data centers consumed approximately 460 TWh in 2022, representing about 2% of total worldwide electricity consumption. According to the International Energy Agency, data centers are projected to consume between 650-1,050 TWh by 2026, with these facilities accounting for roughly 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2024. Natural gas is projected to continue supplying the largest share of energy at data centers through 2030, but nuclear power could eventually play a larger role. Several tech companies have recently announced purchasing agreements with nuclear power startups. Plans are also in the works to revive two retired nuclear power plants – Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Duane Arnold in Iowa – to meet growing energy demand from data centers. Because data centers handle many types of workloads, it’s difficult to distinguish the exact share of their total electricity demand that comes from AI alone.

Total U.S. Water Consumption

• Data center energy consumption has become a significant driver of global electricity demand, with AI workloads accelerating growth beyond historical trends.
• The global total exceeds 11,000 data centers as of late 2025, though this figure continues to grow as AI and cloud computing drive data center expansion.
• Last week, Maine lawmakers approved a proposal to implement a statewide moratorium on new data centers.
• Although AI itself can help reduce energy use in data centres, the rapid and mainstream adoption of AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Bard are likely to accelerate growth in energy demand for AI.
• Reduces tax incentives for data centers to replacement equipment and repairs; HB 897 requires emission-free backup generators to maintain incentive eligibility.
• The remaining 5-10% goes to lighting, security systems, fire suppression, and other facility infrastructure.

At the same time, operators are diversifying power strategies, blending renewables, natural gas, batteries, and emerging technologies to balance sustainability commitments with AI performance demands. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the publication of the 2024 Report on U.S. Data Center Energy Use produced by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) which outlines the energy use of data centers from 2014 to 2028. The report estimates that data center load growth has tripled over the past decade and is projected to double or triple by 2028. U.S. electricity demand is projected to account for data center expansion and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) applications, domestic manufacturing growth, and electrification of different industries.

• Traditional air-cooled data centers face increasing challenges as rack power densities rise.
• By 2050, as much as 7% of all U.S. commercial floorspace requires additional energy to meet data center demand across most building types.
• While Meta is spending for future returns, energy companies can benefit in both the present and years to come thanks to power-hungry data centers.
• Data centers account for roughly 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2024, with projections showing this could grow significantly by 2030.

Rethinking Data Center Tax Incentive Programs

For data centers, power availability meaning not just access, but certainty of delivery, is now the defining variable in the market. The agreement relied on a November 2025 Environmental Protection Agency rule proposal that allowed the DEP to revise its compliance schedule for the plant to meet the wastewater https://greeceholidaytravel.com/where-to-start-a-construction-drawing-and-the-rules-for-its-implementation.html rules in the event of an “unexpected change” in electricity demand. Universities and research organizations have a crucial role in leading efforts to make AI more sustainable. They can conduct precise carbon footprint assessments of AI workloads to better understand and mitigate the energy impact of AI technologies. Encouraging sustainability through research, strategic plans, and policy recommendations can push the industry towards greener solutions and influence regulatory decisions.

• In September 2022, Ethereum transitioned from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake, which is expected to slash energy use by 99.95%.
• Tools to customize searches, view specific data sets, study detailed documentation, and access time-series data.
• But on this March afternoon, the building was filled with tension rather than celebration.
• According to Uptime Institute’s 2024 survey, the average annual PUE for data centers worldwide is approximately 1.56.

The expert insights that follow explore why 2026 marks a critical inflection point for power, operations, and the future of AI-driven infrastructure. The U.S. just had one of its most energy-hungry years in recent memory, and the largest single driver of demand happens to be a lightning rod. ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. The Center conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, computational social science research and other data-driven research. For example, the typical U.S. household was billed $142 per month for electricity in 2024, according to data from the U.S. FuelCell Energy insiders have traded $FCEL stock on the open market 2 times in the past 6 months.

What Drives Data Center Energy Consumption

This is the shift from experimental systems to intelligence that delivers reliable outcomes in the physical world. In 2026, organizations will feel growing pressure to move beyond pilots as they look for efficiency, resilience, and measurable impact. The leaders of this next era will focus on systems that adapt to real conditions, operate responsibly, and deliver value at scale. “As we look ahead to 2026, the rapid evolution of AI continues to redefine expectations for performance, security, and efficiency. Enterprise adoption is driving sustained demand for higher compute density, predictable performance, and improved efficiency from silicon through full data center design.

Baker credited the extension of the two plants to the state pulling out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, which was part of a spending package negotiated by lawmakers and signed by Shapiro in November. RGGI is a de facto cap-and-trade program designed to limit carbon emissions from the power sector. Gov. Josh Shapiro announced he was moving to extend the lives of two Western Pennsylvania coal-fired power plants for four more years.

Most of the grid was built between the 1950s and 1970s, and today, approximately 70% of the grid is approaching the end of its life cycle. Unprecedented load growth is exposing the aging nature of our grid and making it clear that we need to invest in a more modern grid infrastructure to meet the needs of the economy today and in the future. This rapid increase in energy usage threatens to derail the climate pledges that major tech companies set for themselves before the AI hype cycle. Microsoft made a similar pledge the same year, vowing to become carbon negative in a decade. Research from the University of California estimates that each 100-word AI prompt consumes approximately 519 milliliters of water (roughly equivalent to one standard water bottle) when cooling is accounted for.

Natural gas companies have an opportunity to meet that demand by offering consistent, reliable power. According to the International Energy Agency, natural gas accounts for 26% of data center electricity demand. Coal and natural gas together are projected to meet 40% of the additional electricity demand from data centers until 2030. Between 2024 and 2030, electricity demand from data centers is projected to grow by approximately 15% per year, more than four times the growth rate of total electricity demand from all other sectors combined. The rapid increase in electricity demand from data centers, driven predominantly by AI, represents a significant inflection point for U.S. grid planning and energy policy.

IEA estimates that the U.S. data center’s electricity consumption rate will rise from about 200 TWh in 2022 to almost 260 TWh in 2026, accounting for 6% of total electricity demand. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the rapid deployment of high-performance accelerated servers have dramatically transformed the energy use of data centers. U.S. data centers now make up about 4.4.% of electricity consumption nationwide, up from about 1.9% in 2018, and it is predicted that by 2028, this number could climb as high as 12.0%. Comparing data centre electricity consumption normalised per capita can give a sense of the importance of this sector in different economies.