IEA Satellite Census Finds Dedicated AI Data Centre Capacity Doubled in 12 Months
robs62 · reddit · 2026-09-15
The IEA used satellite tracking to map every data centre on Earth and released a 15-minute documentary. Key findings: dedicated AI data centre capacity doubled in 12 months; rack power is heading from 13 kW in 2020 toward 600 kW (65 households per rack); data centres hit 1,000 TWh/year by 2030 (3% of global electricity), but nearly half of US demand growth to 2030 comes from them; clustering near cities can consume up to 30% of local supply; training loads can swing power draw 400% in a quarter second; and video/agentic workloads use hundreds to thousands times the energy of a text query, potentially outweighing efficiency gains.
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