AI's detrimental impact on our energy resources – here’s how we can deal with it

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to put an eye-watering amount of pressure on the world’s electricity supply by the end of this decade. If we want to be in a position to take advantage of the wide-ranging benefits it offers, we need to act fast to find alternative ways of developing, maintaining and powering AI systems.

A 2025 report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that electricity demand from data centers worldwide is set to more than double by 2030 to around 945 terawatt-hours (TWh). To put this into perspective, that’s the equivalent of slightly more than the total current electricity consumption of Japan.

The IEA says AI will be the most significant driver of this increase. Electricity demand from AI-optimised data centers will more than quadruple by 2030, while the US economy is set to consume more electricity in 2030 for processing data - driven by AI ...