The company consumed over 30 million megawatt-hours in 2024, and almost all of that energy went to servicing data centers, which are key infrastructure for the development of AI.
The company consumed over 30 million megawatt-hours in 2024, and almost all of that energy went to servicing data centers, which are key infrastructure for the development of AI.
Over the past four years, Google’s data center energy consumption has more than doubled — from 14.4 million megawatt-hours in 2020 to 30.8 million in 2024. As TechCrunch reports, this data was published in Google’s annual sustainability report.
Data centers account for 95,8% of the company’s total electricity consumption. If we take into account the dynamics of the last decade, in 2014 this figure was at a level of just over 4 million megawatt-hours — that is, costs increased almost 7 times.
Despite high energy efficiency standards, including a near-perfect PUE of 1.09, the continued growth of AI and cloud computing requires new energy sources. Google is working to achieve a «24/7 carbon-free» mode — when energy will be completely carbon-free regardless of time of day or location.
To do this, the company invests in several areas simultaneously:
However, these sources are not yet operational: the first capacities are promised to be put into operation no earlier than the early 2030s. Therefore, the main focus is now on renewable energy with storage systems.
By 2024, only 66% of the energy consumed by Google’s data centers will be carbon-free on an hourly basis. Regional disparities remain significant, with Latin America seeing 92% of the energy consumed, compared to just 5% in the Middle East and Africa.
In 2020, Google announced its intention to fully transition to «24/7 carbon-free energy» by 2030. The company is considered a leader in data center energy efficiency, but the increasing load from AI services such as Gemini is significantly complicating the path to a carbon-free infrastructure.
We also previously reported on how Google disagrees with a court ruling that recognizes it as a monopoly in the search engine market and is already preparing to appeal. The company claims that the measures proposed by the US government will harm not only it, but also its users.
