Data Centers - Sources of Energy
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“Global electricity supply to meet data centre demand
Global electricity generation to supply data centres is projected to grow from 460 TWh in 2024 to over 1 000 TWh in 2030 and 1 300 TWh in 2035 in the Base Case. Over the next five years, renewables meet nearly half of the additional demand, followed by natural gas and coal, with nuclear starting to play an increasingly important role towards the end of this decade and beyond.
Coal, with a share of about 30%, is the largest source of electricity, though this varies significantly by region, with the highest contribution found in China. Renewables – primarily wind, solar PV and hydro – currently supply about 27% of the electricity consumed by data centres globally. Natural gas is the third-largest source today, meeting 26% of the demand, followed by nuclear with 15%...”
“Taken together, renewables remain the fastest-growing source of electricity for data centres, with total generation increasing at an annual average rate of 22% between 2024 and 2030, meeting nearly 50% of the growth in data centre electricity demand..... Coupled with the ongoing growth of renewable electricity generation, the resulting increase in nuclear electricity generation leads to an absolute decline in coal-fired generation for data centre operations by 2035.
Consequently, CO2 emissions from electricity generation for data centres peak at around 320 Mt CO2 by 2030, before entering a shallow decline to around 300 Mt CO2 by 2035. Despite rapid growth, data centres remain a relatively small part of the overall power system, rising from about 1% of global electricity generation today to 3% in 2030, accounting for less than 1% of total global CO2 emissions.”
IEA (2025), Sources of global electricity generation for data centres, Base Case, 2020-2035, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/sources-of-global-electricity-generation-for-data-centres-base-case-2020-2035, Licence: CC BY 4.0
