Big Tech’s data centre building boom could create a huge new source of carbon emissions as the surging demand for electricity sparks a wave of fossil-fuel power plants, despite companies’ climate commitments. An FT analysis of 60 of the largest planned data centres being built in the US by Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta found that they could together produce 101.5mn tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year once fully operational, based on the most recent snapshot of US power generation. That would be equivalent to about 7 per cent of US power-sector emissions in 2025 — the annual emissions of 27 coal plants or 24mn petrol-powered cars. “This is a reasonable ballpark estimate,” said Jonathan Koomey, an energy researcher who has studied energy efficiency and climate solutions. “It is a relatively small fraction of the total but it’s still a big increase compared to what the data centre companies were saying they were going to do five years ago, because they all had emission-reduction plans.”

Full report : An analysis of 60 of the largest planned US data centers: they could together produce 101.5 million tons of CO2 per year, or ~7% of US power sector emissions in 2025.