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Data centers have become a local political fight because they draw large, continuous amounts of electricity and also need water, grid capacity and land. The climate argument has not kept pace. Clean-power purchasing and efficiency metrics answer part of the emissions question, but they do not show what one facility does to a particular grid, water system or community. Climate accountability is therefore real but incomplete. The evidence does not support one global footprint for data centers, and it does not show that every project has the same effect.
Geography matters throughout. U.S. electricity estimates, a UK local-government response and UK comparisons of digital and physical energy answer different questions, so they should not be merged into a single global trend line.
How much electricity do data centers use?
The most-cited U.S. figures come from the Department of Energy. Its 2024 report estimated that U.S. data centers used 176 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2023, about 4.4% of U.S. electricity, up from 58 TWh in 2014. For 2028 it projected 325 to 580 TWh, or 6.7% to 12% of U.S. electricity. Those are forecasts, not measured 2028 consumption. Announcing the report on December 20, 2024, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said: “We can meet this growth with clean energy.” That is a policy position; the figures themselves are the agency’s estimates.
| Estimate | Figure | Year or horizon | Source and status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Historical use | 58 TWh | 2014 | Department of Energy, 2024 report; estimate |
| Use | 176 TWh, about 4.4% of U.S. electricity | 2023 | Department of Energy, 2024 report; estimate |
| Projected use | 325–580 TWh, or 6.7%–12% of U.S. electricity | 2028 | Department of Energy, 2024 report; forecast range |
| Projected share | Possible 11.8% of total U.S. electricity | 2030 | Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 2025 update, as summarized by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI); forecast |
The 2025 update’s 2030 figure comes from a later report with its own buildout assumptions. Each row answers a different question, so read the table as a set of forecasts rather than a trend line.
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How much water do data centers use?
The sources behind this article do not give a comparable national water total for data centers in the United States or the United Kingdom, so no single water figure should be quoted. What the evidence does establish is that water is a local constraint. The Local Government Association (LGA), in its UK response on data-centre sustainability, names water availability and wastewater capacity alongside grid capacity as factors to weigh early in siting and planning.
Any local water claim can be tested with three questions:
- What is the facility’s expected water demand, and does that figure cover peak cooling periods as well as annual averages?
- Where does the water come from, and has the water company confirmed that supply is available for this project?
- Has wastewater treatment capacity been confirmed, and what discharge conditions apply?
Do renewable-energy contracts make data centers carbon neutral?
Not automatically. Under common corporate reporting conventions, emissions from purchased electricity are classed as Scope 2. A clean-energy contract can change how those emissions are reported, and the LGA accepts that renewables can help with Scope 2 accounting. The same response says renewables do not remove local grid congestion, continuous load or capacity constraints. A facility that runs around the clock on clean power can still draw on a grid that is short of capacity or must be reinforced to serve it.
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A climate reckoning therefore has to measure three layers, not one.
Facility efficiency
Efficiency metrics describe energy or water use relative to computing output. They are useful for comparing operators, but they do not reveal total demand. A more efficient facility that grows quickly can still add more load than a less efficient one that stays small.
Electricity-system consequences
This layer asks when and where load arrives, what generation serves it, whether new clean generation is additional, and whether that generation is available at the times the facility draws power. Who pays for grid upgrades belongs to the same question. These are the points where contract-based accounting and physical grid effects can diverge, and the sources raise them without settling them.
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Why are communities opposing data centers?
Local opposition is now affecting projects. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) counted at least 25 U.S. project cancellations attributed to local opposition in 2025, up from six in 2024 and two in 2023. These figures come from EPRI’s 2025 executive summary, “Partnering for Progress: Understanding Community-Centered Data Center Development.” They are EPRI’s count, not an official national tally.
| Year | Project cancellations attributed to local opposition (EPRI count) |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 2 |
| 2024 | 6 |
| 2025 | At least 25 |
The sources do not establish how much of this opposition is motivated by climate concern, as opposed to electricity prices, water, land use, noise or infrastructure. Treat the cancellation count as evidence that opposition is affecting projects, not as evidence of why.
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The LGA’s UK assessment points to a related problem: current frameworks and reporting do not adequately account for the scale and cumulative effects of data centers, which leaves councils with limited information to explain impacts to residents. That is a UK local-government assessment, not a universal legal finding, but it explains why local debates are hard to settle on the facts.
Who pays for the grid, and how can load be managed?
The most developed U.S. policy case in the sources is a September 2025 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), “A Better Path to Managing Data Center Load Growth.” NRDC, an environmental advocacy organization, proposes cost-reflective tariffs so that new facilities pay the costs they cause, flexible loads that can curtail during peak stress, and customer protections. The report’s lead author, NRDC policy analyst McKenna Beck, said: “But, done right, we can have the data centers the technology industry wants while also keeping customers’ bills in check and protecting the environment.” NRDC state power-sector policy director Jackson Morris described the scale of the challenge: “Data center load growth is a challenge of unprecedented scale and magnitude in the modern electric system.”
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These are NRDC’s positions and recommendations, not independent findings about how any utility will behave. Their value for a climate reckoning is that they shift the question from how clean a contract looks to whether the grid can serve the load without pushing costs onto other customers.
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Does moving a service online save energy?
Not always, and the UK evidence does not support a blanket answer. The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) commissioned analysis, “Impact of growth of data centres on energy consumption” (2025, page updated 2026). It compared the full digital delivery chain, not the data center alone, with physical alternatives. In three initial examples, the digital option matched or used less electricity. Follow-up findings vary by use case, so the same conclusion does not carry over to every service.
This is an energy-use comparison under modeled scenarios. It is not a complete lifecycle greenhouse-gas assessment for all digital services and should not be cited as one. Its practical use is to change the question from whether digital activity uses electricity to what physical activity a service replaces or enables.
Questions to ask about a specific project
National totals and UK comparisons cannot settle a local decision. The table below lists the questions that decide whether a project’s climate claim holds up for its location, and where the answers usually sit. For any jurisdiction-specific claim, check that area’s current utility, water, planning and emissions records.
Quick Recap
| Axis | Question to ask | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Emissions accounting | Which clean-energy purchases are matched to this facility’s demand, and in what region and hours? | Operator’s emissions reporting and the contract terms |
| Grid cost and reliability | Who pays for the upgrades, and can the load be curtailed at peak times? | Utility connection terms and tariff filings |
| Water and wastewater | Is water supply and treatment capacity confirmed for this site? | Water company capacity statements and discharge permits |
| Cumulative effects | What other approved or planned projects draw on the same grid, water and land? | Council planning records and utility planning documents |
| Transparency | Can residents obtain the environmental data behind the decision, and take part before approval? | Planning application files and public consultation records |
| Substitution | What physical activity does this service replace or enable? | Operator’s description of the service, compared with full-chain analyses such as the UK DESNZ work |
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