A new whitepaper by Smart Society Ventures (SSV) has suggested that data centres could account for 9% of total global energy generation by 2030, with a single facility consuming the power equal to 800,000 homes.
The whitepaper, Building a Smart Society: Energy, Data Centers, and the Built Environment, examines the role of energy, artificial intelligence (AI), and real estate in shaping the future of urban infrastructure.
Market transition
It notes that the built environment accounts for 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 40% of energy consumption, ‘making it a central focus for decarbonisation efforts’.
The transition to smart, energy-efficient buildings represents a $1.8 trillion market opportunity, it adds.
In addition, the global energy management systems market is set to double in size by 2030, to $80 billion, which will offer ‘major investment opportunities in AI-driven building optimisation and energy efficiency’.
Data centre growth
“The scale of growth, speed of development, and massive energy consumption of tomorrow’s data centres is unprecedented,” commented Brynne Kennedy, SSV managing partner, and one of the authors of the whitepaper. “With AI, particularly generative AI, driving exponential increases in processing capacity, the question of how we power these systems is now central to the global energy transition.”
The whitepaper forms part of SSV’s ‘Building a Smart Society’ series, which aims to foster collaboration among investors, innovators, and policymakers to accelerate the transition to a greener, smarter built environment.
Other authors of the whitepaper include MBA Associate Keertana Anandraj, and marketing and investor relations manager Nour Riad. Smart Society Ventures invests in energy technology companies across the US and Europe to ‘support the global energy transition, enable the growth of AI and data centers, and help create the next generation of unicorns’. Read more here.
Read more: Data centres in Ireland may be required to disclose emissions
