New UCS Report: Powering US Data Centers with More Clean Energy Could Avoid Trillions in Climate, Health Costs
Summary
A UCS report projects that expanding clean energy for US data centers could mitigate climate, health damages, and economic costs, avoiding fossil fuel reliance.
Key quotes
"Frenzied data center growth with little transparency or guardrails puts the public at risk of massive cost increases."
Without strong ratepayer protections, rapid data center growth could put households and businesses at risk of more than $500 billion in cumulative electricity costs nationally by 2035.
Data centers are already secretly increasing peoples’ electricity bills.
Decarbonizing the power sector would result in more than $1.6 trillion in avoided global climate damages by 2035.
The climate and health benefits and net cost savings of building clean energy to meet future electricity needs are obvious and enormous.
The report, “Data Center Power Play,” models the impact of escalating electricity demand from data centers, projecting a 60% increase in U.S. electricity needs by 2050 under mid-level demand growth scenarios. It underscores the risks of unchecked fossil fuel reliance, including higher costs, increased carbon emissions, and health damages, while emphasizing the potential benefits of clean energy investments. The report calls for stronger policy measures, ratepayer protections, and accountability for data center developers and utilities.