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AI push doubles Google's data center energy use in 4-years
02 Jul 2025

Google's data centers have seen a massive spike in their electricity consumption, more than doubling in just four years.

The shocking statistic comes from the tech giant's latest sustainability report, released last week.

In 2024, Google's data centers consumed 30.8 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity, up from 14.4 million MWh in 2020—the first year Google provided detailed data on its data center energy consumption.

Data centers accounted for 95.8% of Google's total energy use
Energy distribution

The bulk of Google's electricity consumption can be attributed to its data centers.

In 2024, these facilities accounted for a whopping 95.8% of the company's total energy use.

Despite the massive increase in energy consumption over the past four years, this ratio has remained remarkably consistent throughout the period under review.

Data center energy consumption has increased 7-fold since 2014
Exponential growth

If we extrapolate from the data available since 2020, it is estimated that Google's data centers consumed slightly more than 4 million MWh of electricity in 2014.

This indicates a staggering seven-fold increase in energy consumption over the last decade.

The tech giant has already optimized its data centers for efficiency, but as their power usage effectiveness (PUE) approaches the theoretical ideal of 1.0, progress has slowed down considerably.

Google's company-wide PUE improved slightly to 1.09 in 2024
PUE progress

Google's company-wide PUE, a measure of energy efficiency in data centers, improved slightly to 1.09 in 2024.

This is just a marginal improvement from 2023 and only 0.02 better than a decade ago.

The incremental progress highlights the challenges Google faces in further reducing its energy consumption amid rapid data center growth and increasing electricity demands.

Google is betting on nuclear and geothermal energy
Energy investments

To meet its increasing electricity needs and remain carbon-free, Google is investing heavily in a range of energy sources. These include geothermal, nuclear power (both fusion and fission), and renewables.

Geothermal energy has potential for data center operations as enhanced geothermal power plants can generate electricity consistently regardless of weather conditions.

Google's investments in nuclear fusion and fission
Nuclear projects

Last week, Google announced its investment in Commonwealth Fusion Systems and a deal to purchase 200 megawatts of electricity from its upcoming Arc power plant.

The facility is expected to go live in the early 2030s.

In the nuclear fission space, Google has also committed to buying 500 megawatts of electricity from Kairos Power, a small modular reactor start-up.

Aggressive push for renewable energy
Renewable acquisition

While the nuclear deals are yet to deliver power, Google has been aggressively acquiring renewable energy.

In May 2024, it purchased 600 megawatts of solar capacity in South Carolina and another 700 megawatts of solar in Oklahoma.

The company also announced plans to partner with Intersect Power and TPG Rise Climate on several gigawatts worth of carbon-free power plants—an investment worth $20 billion.

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