- Some states could see price increases of 57% on energy bills: Virginia and Texas hardest hit
- Digital infrastructure could account for a fifth of energy demand by 2030
- This study points to a serious lack of wind and solar energy.
New research by Jeremiah
The projection is based on historical trends and growth scenarios, and reveals that Virginia and Texas could be hardest hit due to a combination of intense data center development and limited renewable energy resources.
Nationally, the United States could face energy price increases of between 6% and 29%, the document states, marking an unwelcome change from the stable energy prices that citizens have experienced over the past decade.
Data centers could increase some states’ energy bills by 57%, US by 29%
While data centers are largely responsible for sharp increases in energy demand, the article’s authors criticize the United States’ current reliance on legacy fossil fuel infrastructure, which can be prone to variable costs.
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East is proof of this, where citizens are already facing higher gasoline prices at the pump.
The study, which analyzes a variety of models and highlights their influence by global fluctuations, reveals that the digital instructor could account for up to 20% of US energy demand by 2030.
Up to 90% of the country’s energy will come from natural gas (64% to 76%) and coal (12% to 14%) to meet demand for data center infrastructure, highlighting serious shortages and underinvestment in renewable sources such as solar, wind and hydropower. On the contrary, wind energy only represents between 7% and 12% and solar energy between 5% and 12%.
Costs aside, researchers also warn that heavy use of fossil fuels could increase total CO2 emissions from the US energy sector by 28%.
It is widely recognized that data centers are better located in certain regions than others due to environmental and infrastructural factors, such as grid connection availability and cooling limitations, but researchers imply that distributing campuses evenly across the country could go a long way toward eliminating regional price increases, at the cost of higher total emissions.
“Taken together, these results point to the importance of strong policy frameworks and diversified energy portfolios to manage the risks of rapid demand growth,” the paper concludes.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds.
