According to a recently released analysis by consulting firm McKinsey & Company, the United States stands alone as the country where data centers have become the primary catalyst behind the extraordinary escalation in global electricity consumption. The firm’s comprehensive study emphasizes that the nation’s data infrastructure boom is exerting a uniquely powerful influence on the worldwide energy landscape, fundamentally reshaping how and where power is being generated and consumed.
McKinsey’s *Global Energy Perspective 2025* report offers a sweeping view of how industrial expansion is driving humanity toward a dramatic transformation in power usage. It concludes that, if current trends persist, total global electricity demand is set to double by the year 2050. This surge is primarily rooted in the rapid acceleration of industrial and technological development across multiple continents. Among the most significant forces propelling this change is the fierce, ongoing competition to construct expansive artificial intelligence data centers, particularly in regions such as Western Europe, China, and North America. These massive computing facilities, required to handle the exponential growth of data processing and AI model training, are now central players in the global energy equation.
The report provides quantitative evidence of this phenomenon. After meticulously reviewing an extensive pipeline of existing and planned data center projects worldwide, McKinsey forecasts an average annual increase of approximately 17% in global electricity demand attributable specifically to data centers between 2022 and 2030. Yet in the United States, the pace of growth is expected to accelerate dramatically, reaching around 25% per year—significantly outstripping the global average. This trend positions the U.S. as both the largest consumer and one of the fastest-growing markets for data center energy.
By the end of this decade, McKinsey anticipates that these facilities could account for more than 14% of the total national electricity demand, even after factoring in advanced energy efficiencies expected from next‑generation semiconductor chips and more sustainable data center infrastructures. To put this projection into perspective, the proportion of energy consumed by these data centers would more than triple relative to their 2023 levels, underscoring the severity and speed of the shift.
Major technology corporations—often referred to collectively as Big Tech—continue to invest billions of dollars into new hyperscale data center campuses that are proliferating across the American landscape. From the eastern data corridor in Virginia to expanding hubs in Arizona and the Gulf states, companies are not only building at unprecedented scale but also announcing successive waves of new projects. Public utilities, recognizing this tidal wave of demand, forecast that around 60 gigawatts of additional power—roughly equivalent to the electricity required to supply six mid‑sized American cities—will need to be generated exclusively to satisfy data center consumption by 2030.
This national push has triggered a flurry of infrastructure proposals. Utilities across the country, from Virginia to Louisiana and all the way to Arizona, are now seeking regulatory authorization to construct new power plants and high‑capacity transmission lines. The financial implications of these developments are enormous: each project often carries multi‑billion‑dollar price tags. In turn, regulators, policymakers, and the public are grappling with critical questions about how these costs should be distributed—particularly whether residential consumers and small businesses, who already face rising energy bills, should shoulder part of the financial burden for the digital infrastructure powering large corporate clients.
The issue is not merely theoretical. In August, the Louisiana Public Service Commission approved a significant request from Entergy Louisiana to recover approximately five billion dollars in construction expenses linked to three new natural gas facilities. These plants are being developed specifically to provide power for a massive Meta data center currently under construction in the state, highlighting the very real financial and infrastructural consequences of the AI and cloud computing revolution.
At the same time, some technology companies are turning toward self‑sufficiency to meet their energy needs. A striking example is the Stargate campus located in Abilene, Texas, which hosts a major Oracle data center and will soon accommodate an enormous cluster of servers operated by OpenAI. Instead of relying solely on grid power, the site is being energized by an on‑site natural gas power plant—an arrangement that allows the facility to maintain greater control over cost, efficiency, and reliability amid a tightening national power market.
Despite these dramatic changes and the increasing integration of digital infrastructure into the energy ecosystem, McKinsey cautions that fossil fuels are likely to remain a dominant component of the global energy mix for several more decades. The report points out that while innovations in low‑carbon technologies such as carbon capture and hydrogen energy are progressing, their development has been slower and more complex than initially forecast. Consequently, their overall contribution to the global power market is expected to remain relatively limited well into the mid‑twenty‑first century. In essence, while the race toward sustainable alternatives continues, the immediate future of energy consumption—particularly that driven by data centers and digital infrastructure—will still depend heavily on conventional sources, underscoring the intricate link between technological advancement and environmental responsibility.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/data-center-drive-us-power-demand-delay-clean-energy-mckinsey-2025-10
