MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Datacenters may double their power consumption over the next six years and their share in global energy consumption may reach the level of such major sectors as metallurgy and agriculture, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in his article for the Energy Policy magazine.
"The stable operation of AI systems and the datacenters that support them requires significant high-performance computing power, meaning enormous energy costs. That is why the development of artificial intelligence already today depends not only on computing power, but to a greater extent on the capabilities of energy systems," he wrote.
According to the Datacenters Association, there are currently about 11,800 datacenters functioning worldwide, with roughly a half of them located in the United States. The total connected capacity of all datacenters is 62 GW, with the annual growth rate of approximately 15%.
"By 2030, the average power consumption of datacenters could rise to 110 GW, and their share of global energy consumption will increase from 1.5% in 2024 to 3%, which is comparable to such large sectors as aluminum and steel production or agriculture," the deputy prime minister noted.
The ability of countries to provide the digital economy with affordable and reliable energy will be the foundation of global competitiveness in the high-tech sphere, Novak noted. The lack of specific regulation for this sector could lead to grid overloads, the risks of power shortages, and reduced electricity affordability for other consumers. "The task is to strike a balance between the technological breakthrough and the reliability of the power supply," he stressed.