Overview

• Goldman Sachs projects global data center capacity to jump about 50% by 2027 with AI workloads reaching roughly 28% of capacity, and sector electricity use doubling by 2030.
• Utilities report planning uncertainty from speculative interconnection requests, with Oncor’s queue including about 186 GW of prospective data center load and AEP fielding interest equal to five times its current system size.
• Goldman expects renewables to supply around 40% of incremental power needs as natural gas covers about 60%, adding an estimated 215–220 million tons of CO2 by 2030.
• Analysts say access to abundant, low-cost, reliable power is becoming the decisive advantage, with siting gravitating to regions like Texas and Louisiana and China cited as moving faster on large-scale generation and transmission.
• Proposed fixes include demand management that curtails AI workloads during grid stress, efficiency gains through hardware-aware operations, and stronger energy and emissions disclosure as DOE estimates data centers could reach 6.7%–12% of U.S. electricity use by 2028.