Surya Hendry and Kartik Selvaraju of Rystad Energy explain that the build-out of data centers and the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is expected to ramp up electricity demand in the U.S. in the coming years. They write:
Leading up to that point, the growth in electricity demand for data centers will be heavily driven by those focused on artificial intelligence (AI), which consumes more electricity compared to traditional computing. Overall, the combined expansion of traditional and AI data centers, along with chip foundries, will increase demand cumulatively by 177 TWh from 2023 to 2030, reaching a total of 307 TWh. Despite data centers currently representing a relatively modest portion of total electricity demand in the US, this marks a more than two-fold increase compared to 2023 levels, which stood at 130 TWh, highlighting the efforts of the US to position itself as a global data center hub.
EVs will emerge as the second major catalyst for power demand growth in the US market up to 2030. In 2023, electricity consumption in the transportation sector totaled 18.3 TWh. By 2030, this figure is projected to soar to 131 TWh, driven primarily by the expansion of battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
In absolute terms, the growth in electricity demand from these two segments, EVs and data centers, is equivalent to the total electricity demand of a countrym such as Turkey, that the US has to take on. This growth is a race against time to expand power generation without overwhelming electricity systems to the point of stress. If you envision cleaner roads and sustainable AI for the future, renewable energy is the key to meeting this demand and providing the scalability needed for US power systems to endure,
