“Data centres and AI now play a crucial role across nearly every sector of the economy, making it essential not only to ensure their sustainability but also to harness their potential to drive sustainable solutions. 

“These solutions include but are not limited to further improving energy efficiency, better forecasting renewable energy supply and optimising distribution, speeding up interconnection permitting, as well as more targeted planning for resilience and adaptation efforts.”

Escalating demand for data centres

McKinsey says the US is expected to be the fastest-growing market for data centres, fuelled by a continued increase in cloud migration and the scaling of new technologies including AI.

It says that generative AI could help to create between US$2.6tn and US$4.4tn in economic value throughout the global economy.

However, achieving a quarter of this by the end of the decade would require up to 60GW of additional data centre infrastructure in the US alone.

McKinsey says this will require considerably more electricity than is currently produced in the US and data centre load may make up 30-40% of all new net demand added until 2030.

Melanie Nakagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer at Microsoft, says: “Together technology, policy and investment can help catalyse innovation at the scale we need at this moment.”