Research from ING predicts that global data flows will be more than 20 times those of 2018 and data-driven electricity use will double, accounting for 5 per cent of the world’s electricity consumption, by 2030.

This increase would mean that without efficiency gains, the share of data in global power use would rise to more than 30 percent, having a serious impact on global emissions goals. To limit the growth in electricity use of data-driven technology, data centres and networks will need to find new, more efficient, operation models, as they have done in the past. In addition, to mitigate the environmental impact associated with increased data-driven electricity use, the industry will need to also use renewable electricity to enable data flows according to ING’s report.

Marten van Garderen, senior economist at ING, said: “A strong rise in electricity use seems inevitable, given the huge growth in data. One of the biggest issues ING sees is the knock-on effect that this additional use of electricity could have on our global carbon emissions footprint.”

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