A new report from the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) says AI data centres are being built faster than power systems can support them. It warns that developed countries are "flying blind" as they join the expansion.
These large facilities hold thousands of servers and need huge amounts of electricity, water and land. Few governments have a full plan to manage their growth.
"Very few people work in data centres; it carries huge energy and water demand, so local communities are asking what's in it for us," said Dario Liguti, director of sustainable energy at UNECE, speaking to Geneva Solutions.
Power Demand Is Concentrated in a Few Places
According to the report, electricity use by data centres is expected to nearly double from 485 terawatt hours in 2025 to 950 terawatt hours by 2030. AI facilities are the main driver.
Data centres make up about 3% of global energy demand. Liguti said that share is modest, but it is the fastest-growing source.
His bigger concern is location. He said places such as North Carolina, Northern Virginia and Ireland are seeing electricity demand grow by 20% to 30% because of data centre building.
Companies are drawn to these areas by cheap energy, large pieces of land, loose rules and nearness to big cities. Some local officials have offered major incentives to firms like Google and OpenAI.
Ireland is a clear example. Data centres used about 23% of its electricity in 2025, up from 5% in 2015. Environmental groups want a new pause on connections after an earlier Dublin moratorium was lifted.
Communities Push Back
In Memphis, Tennessee, SpaceXAI's Colossus 2 data centre, which powers the Grok chatbot, faces lawsuits. Residents and environmental groups say it ran unpermitted methane gas turbines that caused pollution and noise.
In Maryland, consumer groups say data centre growth is raising power bills. Residents are expected to pay part of the cost of new grid equipment.
Bigger projects are coming. Meta's Hyperion campus in Louisiana covers 910 hectares and is planned to reach five gigawatts of computing capacity by 2032, enough to power several million homes.
Carbon Direct, an energy consultancy, found at least 46 US projects worth about $170 billion were delayed or cancelled from January 2024 to May 2026 due to local opposition.
A Heatmap News poll this summer found that three-quarters of US respondents oppose local data centre building.
The industry says it has supported millions of US jobs. Business Insider reported that experts dispute those figures, as many jobs are in construction and maintenance.
The report also points to a lack of clear data. Liguti said water and power figures come from tech companies and are not measured the same way, which leads to conflicting claims.
Liguti also warned of "stranded assets," meaning power plants and transmission lines built for an AI boom that may not develop as expected. That infrastructure can last for decades.
UNECE urges governments to require full disclosure of project costs, consult communities early and pause new projects where grids are tight. Longer term, it wants data centres treated as strategic infrastructure under common international standards.
Government and industry representatives are set to discuss the report on Tuesday at UNECE's expert group on cleaner electricity systems in Geneva.
