India, Sept. 9 -- Use of data-intensive technologies - in particular artificial intelligence data centers - is growing faster than electricity infrastructure can handle, the UN's economic commission for Europe has warned, raising concerns about the future reliability and resilience of energy systems worldwide.
Datacenter consumption is expected to almost double by 2030 - from 485 Terawatt-hours in 2025 to 950 TWh by 2030, equivalent to three per cent of global demand, according to the International Energy Agency.
On the other hand, investment in datacenter infrastructure worldwide is forecast to roughly double only by 2050 - from around $800 billion per year in 2026 to $1.8 trillion per year in 2050.
The Geneva-based commission warns tha...