The head of the United Nations called on the growing artificial intelligence sector to prioritise sustainable energy for running power-hungry data centres on July 22, reported AFP.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a typical AI data centre, sites where data is processed, uses the same amount of electricity as 100,000 regular homes.
With AI development being prioritised by countries globally, the power demands are also rapidly expanding. The largest data centres will "soon use 20 times" the current demand, Guterres said, and "by 2030 data centres could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today".
"This is not sustainable," Guterres said. "The technology sector must be out front. Today I call on every major tech firm to power all data centers with 100 percent renewables by 2030."
And the UN chief asserted that the artificial intelligence industry itself could be harnessed to help with some of the very improvements that are needed.
"AI can boost efficiency, innovation, and resilience in energy systems, and we must make profit of it. But it is also energy-hungry," he said.
According to a new UN report, data centres currently account for 1.5% of global electricity consumption. That is set to more than double by 2030.
"This is not sustainable, unless we make it so," Guterres said.
Global capacity additions are already surging, especially in AI-heavy markets like the US, India, and China.
AI Capacity Outlook: US, India, China
According to Rystad Energy, the US currently hosts over 50 GW of data center capacity.
According to May 2025 report released by MIT Technology Review, the electricity demand could grow by +50 GW by 2028 to support AI operations.
McKinsey projects global demand rising from nearly 60 GW now to as much as 171–219 GW by 2030, with the US still a major contributor.
In case of China, the country is executing the ‘Eastern Data, Western Computing’ initiative, deploying roughly 2 million server racks in eight new data hubs, reported Reuters.
According to Bloomberg, China aims to build or upgrade 39 AI data centres housing over 115,000 high-end GPUs as of 2025.
IEA reported that China accounted for nearly 25% of data center electricity use in 2024.
India’s data centre (DC) market is expected to witness a significant expansion, with the capacity expected to grow by 500 MW over the next four years, according to a report by Avendus Capital. The study highlights that the surge in AI workloads is driving this growth, with AI demand likely to surpass traditional cloud computing requirements, reported ET.
India’s data centre capacity is expected to grow from 1.3 gigawatts (GW) to 5 GW by 2030, with capital expenditure projected to reach 20-22 billion the period, according to a report by Avener Capital.
To put that into perspective, according to US Energy Information Administration (EIA), 1 GW can power approximately 876,000 households for one year if they collectively consume 10,000 kWh each, assuming the plant operates continuously throughout the year.
