Global electricity consumption from data centers could exceed 1,000 terawatt-hours in 2026, roughly equal to the total electricity use of Japan, according to International Energy Agency projections. The figure marks a steep climb from about 415 terawatt-hours in 2024, when data centers accounted for around 1.5 percent of global electricity consumption after growing 12 percent per year over the prior five years.

The United States leads regional demand. The IEA projected US data center power consumption to reach 260 terawatt-hours in 2026, ahead of Europe at roughly 150 terawatt-hours, with China positioned between the two. That concentration reflects the heavy US investment in artificial intelligence training and cloud capacity.

The longer-term trajectory continues upward. Global data center electricity consumption is projected to reach around 945 terawatt-hours by 2030 in the agency's base case, just under 3 percent of total global electricity use. Artificial intelligence workloads are the primary driver, alongside continued growth in conventional cloud computing.

The projections carry weight for utilities and grid planners because data center load is dense, geographically concentrated, and runs around the clock. Meeting it requires firm generation and transmission investment on timelines that often lag the pace of data center construction, a mismatch the agency and other analysts have flagged as a central challenge for the second half of the decade.

Source: International Energy Agency - https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-2026/demand