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Projet Celsius
Key figureElectricityUpdated on 20 October 2026

415TWh

Electricity consumed by data centres in 2024

World · 2024 · all data centre uses

This value does not measure AI consumption alone.

See the source
Aerial view of Ashburn, Virginia: dozens of large, flat data centre buildings between roads and residential neighbourhoods
Data centres in Ashburn, Virginia, seen from the air. Photo Theodore Christopher, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Definition and scope

Electricity consumed in 2024 by all data centres worldwide, all uses combined: servers, storage, internal network, cooling and site equipment. About 1.5% of global electricity.

What is included

  • Servers, storage and internal network
  • Cooling and auxiliary equipment
  • All hosted uses: AI, cloud, online services

What is excluded

  • Users' devices (computers, phones)
  • Telecommunication networks outside the centres
  • Equipment manufacturing

How the value is obtained

Estimate by the International Energy Agency based on server fleets, their unit consumption and data published by operators. According to the IEA, growth has been about 12% a year over the last 5 years.

Limits and uncertainties

  • The share of AI is not isolated in this value.
  • Not all operators publish their consumption: the estimate carries uncertainty.

415 TWh, worldwide

All figures
All electricity consumed worldwide, 202427,391 TWh
The same bar, from 0 to 1,000 TWh
AI, in 20252 estimates: Schneider Electric, GreenIT100 to 174Data centres, in 2024this figure (IEA)415All of France, over a yearRTE, Bilan électrique 2025451Data centres, in 2030IEA base case scenario945
In TWh. World: IEA, Electricity 2026; data centres: IEA, Energy and AI, 2025; France: RTE; AI: Schneider Electric (The Shift Project) and GreenIT, 2026

In context

See the chart and its data

Electricity use of data centres

Global electricity consumption, by region, in terawatt-hours per year

2024 (estimate) and 2030 (base case scenario)

The IEA publishes 2 years per region: 2024 and 2030 in its base case scenario. The line connects them without inventing the intermediate years.

02505007501,000TWh per year451 TWhFrancemainland France, 2025United States+240 TWhChina+175 TWhEurope+45 TWhRest of the world+70 TWh415 TWh945 TWh2024estimate2030baseline scenarioby region, yearsin between not publishednearly 80%of the increasein the United States and inChina× 2.3 in 6 yearsin 2030, about 2 times theconsumption of France
Source: IEA, Energy and AI, April 2025, rounded values · projetcelsius.com/en/ai · CC BY 4.0AI Impactby Projet Celsius

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