# Energy and AI

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2026-04-30

energy, ai, data-centres, renewables, renewable-energy, solar, wind

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The International Energy Agency (IEA) has just published a comprehensive report on the nexus between AI and energy consumption. I would encourage you all to give it a read, or, you know, use AI to summarize it for you. It represents our reality today.

The largest tech companies in the world spent over US$400 billion on data centres in 2025, and this number is expected to jump by 75% in 2026! The total capital expenditure of just five tech companies is right now larger than the entire global investment in oil and natural gas production.

This is the new fuel for the world economy, and we're going to need to figure out how to supply enough energy.

According to the report, an individual server rack within an advanced data centre might only be the size of a refrigerator. But by 2027, it is not inconceivable that it could have a peak power demand equivalent to that of 65 households.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/3012f85868f6954e3882db0d17dbd24c8ac4763c470da77c3bf2b2296f5d7d98.png)

The good news is that much of this demand is being met by renewables. Renewables are the fastest-growing source of electricity for data centres. The report [estimates](https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai/energy-supply-for-ai) total generating capacity increasing at an average of 22% per year between 2024 and 2030, which will meet nearly 50% of the growth in data centre demand.

If you'd like to download a copy of the full report, [go here](https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai).

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_Cover photo by_ [_Claudio Schwarz_](https://unsplash.com/@purzlbaum?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) _on_ [_Unsplash_](https://unsplash.com/photos/a-close-up-of-a-window-with-a-building-in-the-background-fyeOxvYvIyY?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/energy-and-ai)*