When everybody and their mother started reporting about the drinking habits of data centers, gulping a gazillion litres of water for their cooling systems, they didn’t make a note of their eating disorder. According to Forbes, data centers can eat up to an upwards of 4% of national electricity, which is enough to power New York & Chicago combined. With these outlandish energy demands the projected energy footprint of these data centers can reach anywhere from 9-12% by 2030.  
 
These numbers seem trivial until you bring in the bigger picture, because for the first time since 2007 the U.S. power demand has increased for 4 consecutive years, due to the rapid expansion of data centers. All thanks to the roughly 4,000 and counting data centers  nationwide, with a big chunk clustered around Virginia, Texas and California. 

Even with a strong year of energy production and natural gas output, there is still a hint of concern since a large chunk of the increasing demand comes from computing facilities, including data centers, as per Tristan Abbey (Administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration). Add that to the fact that the current AI infrastructure in place isn’t anywhere close to executing a smooth job to meet these rising demands.  
 
As Tom Falcone, president of the Large Public Power Council best puts it, “This (energy demand) came out of nowhere. Pre ChatGPT, we weren’t seeing this kind of load growth. It is an entire supply chain issue, involving utilities, industry, the workforce, and engineers, who don’t just fall out of trees because you want them.” This basically translates that there is no structure in place to sustain such a galloping expansion of data centers without actively sabotaging the climate and residential consumer needs. 

As per data from 2025, the United States consumed roughly 4,187 billion kWh of electricity, out of which 1,508 billion kWh was used for residential consumers, 1,482 billion kWh for commercial customers, and 1,055 billion kWh for industrial customers. There are mainly three sources of electricity generation that being natural gas, coal, and nuclear which account for 75% of all electricity production. And since, data centers are burdened with the curse of Atlas, running 24/7 makes it so that even the greener data centers require the backup power of said sources, adding extra strain to an already high demand.  
 
With record high demands also comes inflated prices for the locals, with Bloomberg reporting that wholesale electricity now costs an absurd 267% more in a single month around areas with excessive data center activity, than it did half a decade ago. All in all, with an incompetent system in place and a rapid-fire dumping of revenue from large conglomerates to achieve their tech ambitions, it’s a complete haywire for the regular consumers as well as the climate, and a blurry grey future ahead for the overly ambitious AI-companies.