Energy companies in the US are pumping record amounts into building power plants and transmission lines to meet electricity demand from data centres.

According to a report in the Financial Times, utility capital expenditure is expected to rise 22.3% year-over-year to reach $212.1 billion by 2025. Investment is forecast to reach a record high of $228.1bn in 2027.

The demand for data centres is in part due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) – and data centre energy consumption is forecast to grow as the technology advances. A typical AI-focused data centre uses as much electricity as 100,000 households, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The largest under construction currently will consume 20 times that much, it says.

Citește mai mult