International Energy Agency (IEA)

The IEA was created after the 1973 oil crisis to coordinate energy security among industrialized nations and now serves as the world's leading authority on energy data and transition analysis. - Primary authority on global energy statistics and forecasting

In 2004, it took the world an entire year to install one gigawatt of solar power. By 2025, that amount went online every single day—a pace that propelled global renewable capacity past 5,000 gigawatts by year-end. Science Magazine named this accelerating surge in renewable energy its 2025 Breakthrough of the Year, recognizing solar and wind eclipsing coal as the world's largest electricity source; yesterday, U.S. Energy Information Administration data confirmed renewables supplied a record 25.7% of U.S. electricity in 2025, generating 1,162 terawatt-hours—a 10% increase over 2024—with utility-scale solar up 34.5% and 53 gigawatts of new renewable capacity added.

Updated Yesterday

The IEA is an autonomous intergovernmental organization that produces analysis and policy advice on global energy markets, now including AI and data centres. - Providing global baseline projections for AI- and data center-driven electricity demand

Since late 2022, U.S. regulators and utilities have warned that a new class of digital infrastructure—AI-optimized data centers—could reshape national power demand, ending an era of flat electricity consumption and forcing a rapid buildout of generation and transmission. By early 2026, those warnings have crystallized into concrete challenges: PJM Interconnection's December 2025 capacity auction hit the $333.44/MW-day price cap and failed to meet reliability requirements for the first time in its history, with data centers accounting for $6.5 billion—or 40%—of the auction's $16.4 billion in costs. Regional grid operators now project U.S. data center electricity consumption will grow from 183 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2024 to over 400 TWh by 2030, while the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates data centres globally could more than double their electricity use to approximately 945 TWh in the same timeframe, with AI-optimized servers as the main driver.

Updated Jan 27