Environmental Burden of United States Data Centers in the Artificial Intelligence Era

Abstract

The rapid proliferation of data centers in the US - driven partly by the adoption of artificial intelligence - has set off alarm bells about the industry's environmental impact. We compiled detailed information on 2,132 US data centers operating between September 2023 and August 2024 and determined their electricity consumption, electricity sources, and attributable CO$_{2}$e emissions. Our findings reveal that data centers accounted for more than 4% of total US electricity consumption - with 56% derived from fossil fuels - generating more than 105 million tons of CO$_{2}$e (2.18% of US emissions in 2023). Data centers' carbon intensity - the amount of CO$_{2}$e emitted per unit of electricity consumed - exceeded the US average by 48%. Our data pipeline and visualization tools can be used to assess current and future environmental impacts of data centers.

Figures (6)

• Figure 1: The chain of digital services, data centers, and CO$_{2}$ emissions. This infographic illustrates the interconnected relationship between digital services, data centers, energy consumption, and the consequent emissions from the power plants that supply data centers. It highlights how data centers power digital services by relying on energy from power plants, leading to CO$_2$e emissions that are subsequently released into the environment.
• Figure 2: Data center energy consumption and CO$_{2}$ emissions. (Left column, A and C) The balancing authority region in which a data center is located determines the mix of power plants that supply its electricity and thus its attributable emissions. (Right column, B and D) Maps at the state level show energy consumption and emissions for which the data centers within the state are responsible for.
• Figure 3: Carbon intensities of energy production for US data centers by balancing authorities and in world countries. The left panel shows data centers' carbon intensity for energy production at the balancing authority level, in grams of CO$_{2}$e per kWh. The right panel shows the carbon intensities of total energy production by world countries in grams of CO$_{2}$e per kWh.
• Figure 4: Fuel mix of power plants producing energy for US data centers. The left panel depicts the distribution of fuel types used by the power plants providing energy for US data centers in our study. The right panel shows the first 10 balancing authorities ranked by aggregated power capacity of data centers in the balancing authority region (shown on the vertical axis), and the amount of energy produced per fuel type.
• Figure S.1.1: Data pipeline. Data sources and types used to generate our data set.