China’s rapid build-out of data centres will see the sector using nearly three times as much energy as the entirety of the UK by 2030, analysis from Wood Mackenzie shows.
Like many countries around the world, China has wholeheartedly embraced AI technologies in the last few years, which has necessitated the need for massive data centre construction. The report suggests that by 2030, electricity requirements from the sector will triple, equating to around 6% of the country’s entire electricity consumption, or around 774TWh. To put that in perspective, the UK’s total national power grid currently sees generation of around 275-320TWh.
The report – Rewiring China’s grid for the AI era – predicted that by 2060, data centres could account for 17% of China’s total electricity consumption.
“Data centres are becoming an increasingly important part of China’s energy system,” said Wanting Zhao, a research analyst at Wood Mackenzie. “As AI drives sustained growth in computing demand, access to reliable...