IEA Says Data Centre Electricity Use Rose 17% in 2025 as Grid and Equipment Bottlenecks Tighten
Electricity demand from data centres rose by 17% in 2025, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency published on 16 April 2026. Demand from data centres focused on artificial intelligence grew even faster. Both outpaced the 3% growth in global electricity demand. The report, titled Key Questions on Energy and AI, builds on the IEA's first Energy and AI report from April 2025. The IEA's data show global data centre electricity consumption of about 485 TWh in 2025, with AI-focused data centres accounting for about 155 TWh, roughly a third of the total.
The capital expenditure of five large technology companies rose to more than $400 billion in 2025 and is set to increase by a further 75% in 2026, according to the IEA. The IEA expects electricity consumption from data centres to double by 2030, and consumption by AI-focused data centres to triple. The report finds that AI deployment is increasingly running into physical constraints that limit how fast data centres can expand. Constrained by slow grid connections, developers are advancing many projects with on-site natural gas generation, mostly in the United States.
The technology sector accounted for around 40% of all corporate power purchase agreements for renewables signed in 2025, according to the report. "While AI is still an energy taker, it is also becoming an energy maker, driving forward innovative solutions like next-generation nuclear reactors, flexible data centres and long-duration energy storage," said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. The report notes that social concerns about AI have grown, with data centres becoming a visible flashpoint for worries about electricity prices and the environment.
The IEA says policymakers have tools to manage these issues, including encouraging smart integration of data centres into grids and incentivising them to operate more flexibly. In its 2025 report, the IEA estimated that emissions from data centres would rise from around 180 million tonnes of CO2 to 300 million tonnes by 2035 in its base case, a small share of global energy emissions but one of the fastest-growing.