By 2028, data center energy consumption in the United States is expected to nearly treble

According to an unpublished analysis sponsored by the Department of Energy reviewed by Reuters, the energy demand for data centers in the United States will nearly treble in the next three years, using up to 12% of the country’s electricity as the industry transforms to artificial intelligence.

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory analysis, due out on Friday, comes at a time when the US energy business and government agencies are attempting to comprehend how the spike in demand for big tech data centers will affect power grids, energy bills, and the environment.

According to the Berkeley Lab analysis, by 2028, yearly data center power use could range from 74 gigawatts to 132 gigawatts, or 6.7% to 12% of total US electricity consumption. The industry-standard-setting report includes estimates based in part on the availability and demand for GPUs, a sort of artificial intelligence chip. Currently, data centers consume slightly over 4% of the nation’s energy.

According to the survey, the adoption of GPU-accelerated servers in 2017 resulted in more than doubling the industry’s power usage over a six-year timeframe.

AI, which necessitates increasingly powerful chips and intensive cooling systems, is the primary driver of predicted data center expansion.