Which cities have the largest Data centers & what are the connection queues for new Data centers globally?

Which cities have the largest data centers & what are the connection queues for new Data centers globally? - Portugal Business News

Tech news - Which cities have the largest Data centers & what are the connection queues for new Data centers globally? Here are the highlights of The World Energy Outlook Special Report by the International Energy Agency (IEA):

Training and deploying AI models takes place in large and power-hungry data centers: A typical AI-focused 100 MW data center can consume as much electricity as 100,000 households, and the largest ones currently under construction will consume 20 times more.

AI represents an industry with trillions of dollars of market capitalization and the market capitalization of AI-related firms in the S&P 500 has grown by around USD 12 trillion since 2022.

Meanwhile, global investment in data centers has nearly doubled since 2022 and amounted to half a trillion dollars in 2024. This investment boom has led to growing concerns about skyrocketing electricity demand as Data centers accounted for around 1.5% of the world’s electricity consumption in 2024, or 415 terawatt-hours (TWh).

While data center electricity consumption is set to more than double to reach around 945 TWh by 2030, half of the global growth in Data center demand is met by renewables, supported by storage and the broader electricity grid. Renewables generation is projected to grow by over 450 TWh to meet data center demand to 2035.

AI is already being deployed by energy companies to transform and optimize energy and mineral supply, electricity generation and transmission, and energy consumption.

With energy and tech now on a journey together, collaboration is key.

Here are the regions globally that have the largest data centers in 2024:

1 - The United States accounted for the largest share of global Data center electricity consumption in 2024 with 45%

2 - China accounted for the second largest share of global Data center electricity consumption in 2024 with 25%

3 - Europe accounted for the third largest share of global Data center electricity consumption in 2024 with 15%.

Here is the chart showing the cities globally that have the largest data centers in 2024:

Chart showing the cities globally that have the largest data centers in 2024 - Portugal Business News

The global expansion of data center capacity faces risks from grid connection delays, particularly in regions experiencing high concentrations of demand growth. Here are the reported connection queues for new Data centers in cities globally, according to the IEA analysis based on energy.gov (United States), datacenterdynamics.com (Virginia, Netherlands, United Kingdom), electricalreview.co.uk (Germany), businesspost.ie (Ireland) and IEA survey results (Australia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Spain).

These are the reported connection queues for new Data centers in cities globally:

1 – The average time in queue in the United States is 1-3 years

2 - The average time in queue in North Virginia (United States) is up to 7 years    

3 - The average time in queue in California (United States) is 3 years  

4 - The average time in queue in Germany is up to 7 years

5 - The average time in queue in the United Kingdom is 5-7 years

6 - The average time in queue in the Netherlands is up to 10 years

7 – The average time in queue in Kanto (Japan) is more than 5 years

8 - The average time in queue in Malaysia is under 3 years

9 - The average time in queue in Queensland (Australia) is more than 2 years

10 - The average time in queue in Italy is under 3 years

11 - The average time in queue in Spain is 3-5 years

12 – The average time in queue in Dublin, Ireland, is paused until 2030