They host our emails; stream our films; train the AI models that write poetry, diagnose diseases; and they keep banks, hospitals and governments running. But unfortunately that comes with a cost – data centres are hungry for electricity. Studies show that global data centre energy demand is growing rapidly and could consume a large share of power use in the next half decade. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that global data centre electricity consumption will rise substantially in the next five years, with several scenarios suggested where total power expenditure could approach levels comparable to the entire electricity use of small countries.

‘Data centres – at least at the scale seen today – are relatively new actors in the energy system at the global level,’ says the IEA in a recent report. ‘Today, electricity consumption from data centres is estimated to amount to around 415 terawatt hours (TWh), or about 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2024. It has grown at 12% per year over the last five years. The rise of AI is accelerating the deployment of high-performance accelerated servers, leading to greater power density in data centres. Understanding the pace and scale of accelerator adoption is critical, as it will be a key determinant of future electricity demand.’ Even in the US, government analysis, for example, found data centres accounted for about 4.4% of all US electricity use in 2023 and could represent between 6.7% and 12% of power by the end of the decade under different growth scenarios.

That sort of scale makes the carbon footprint of data centres significant. Even the most efficient data centres still require vast amounts of energy, and unless that energy comes from low-carbon sources, emissions rise in step with demand. For major cloud providers, increases in computing power (especially for AI workloads) have driven noticeable year-on-year rises in energy use.
Transitioning to renewables often accompanies broader sustainability upgrades. Modern data centres designed to run on low-carbon power frequently incorporate advanced cooling techniques that reduce water use, reuse waste heat for district heating and pursue circular procurement for equipment. These co-benefits amplify the climate gains: less water stress in drought-prone regions; revenue or local heating from heat reuse; and lower embodied carbon from circular IT procurement. Integrated planning unlocks benefits that are larger than the sum of their parts.

The South Africa-based Sola Group, which specialises in renewables, summed up the energy situation facing data centres in a research paper released in August.

‘South Africa’s data centres operate under intense energy demands, running high-load IT infrastructure 24/7 while needing to control costs and meet growing sustainability commitments. By combining solar power purchase agreements (PPAs) with large battery energy storage systems (BESS) for peak shaving, data centres can reduce reliance on expensive electricity during high-tariff periods, improve operational cost predictability and significantly cut their carbon footprint. Data centres run round-the-clock IT loads. That scale makes PPAs sensible and economical. In South Africa, major data centre operators have already signed PPAs to secure solar generation for their campuses, demonstrating this model works locally,’ according to the company.

‘Long-term PPAs lock in predictable energy costs and help companies meet emissions targets without capital outlay or on-site construction. For many large consumers, wheeled renewable energy can be much cheaper than volatile Eskom tariffs or diesel alternatives.’ Sola was responsible for the first wheeling agreement in South Africa for Amazon Web Services (AWS), with a 12 MW PPA serving its data centre operations in Cape Town.

Kara Hurst, the chief sustainability officer of Amazon, says in the company’s 2024 sustainability report that as ‘our AI business continues to grow rapidly, we are investing in the infrastructure that we’ll need to make AI innovation possible’.

She says Amazon is tackling rising energy demand, which she describes as ‘one of [AI’s] greatest challenges’, head on. ‘Rather than viewing this as a limitation for sustainability, we see it as an opportunity we’re facing head-on to pioneer sustainability solutions at scale through our AWS business for our customers and our suppliers.

‘In 2024, we unveiled breakthrough data centre innovations in power systems, cooling technology and hardware architecture that will simultaneously support next-generation AI capabilities while improving energy efficiency – proving that technological progress and sustainability can advance in tandem,’ she says.

‘We’re also diversifying and expanding our carbon-free energy portfolio, which includes our first investments in nuclear energy, alongside maintaining our position as the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy for the fifth consecutive year. Through these complementary approaches – optimising efficiency while scaling carbon-free energy – we’re creating a more sustainable foundation that AI needs to fulfil its world-changing potential,’ says Hurst.

In South Africa, meanwhile, Teraco, a major provider of interconnection platforms and vendor-neutral colocation data centres, has signed a PPA with South Africa-based integrated energy aggregator NOA to supply wind-powered renewable energy to Teraco’s data centres.

Last year Teraco announced that it had begun construction on its own 120 MW solar PV plant in the Free State province. ‘The agreement provides Teraco and NOA with the flexibility to grow renewable energy offtake as both companies evolve to meet increasing demand,’ Teraco announced in a press release.

‘Under the terms of the deal, NOA will wheel renewable energy from various wind projects to Teraco’s facilities. The renewable energy wheeled to Teraco’s facilities will complement Teraco’s solar programme, maximising renewable energy across Teraco’s data centres. These projects will ramp up progressively over time, with the first power anticipated to be wheeled in 2026.’

The company said it recognised the ‘significant energy requirements of our facilities, and [we] are committed to minimising our environmental impact. Through renewable energy programmes, next-generation cooling systems and optimised power infrastructure, we are investing in leading-edge technologies to improve energy efficiency and sustainability’.

Another major data centre operator on the continent, African Data Centres, has entered into a PPA with Distributed Power Africa to increase its use of renewable energy to more than 33% of total demand. In April last year ground was broken on a solar plant in the Free State, the first phase of which will feed 12 MW of power to CPT1, the African Data Centres facility in Cape Town.

Elsewhere in Africa, according to a report by Energy News Network, Microsoft and G42, a Dubai-based AI firm, said last year they would build a 100 MW data centre run completely on geothermal energy in Kenya.

The efforts of the continent’s data centres to recognise and mitigate their energy usage have resulted in the African Data Centre Association (ADCA) developing an African code of conduct for data centres.

‘The code of conduct is a cornerstone of our commitment to sustainable digital growth. By empowering data centre operators and suppliers to voluntarily improve energy efficiency, we’re not only reducing emissions, we’re building a resilient, future-ready infrastructure that attracts green investment and drives inclusive development across the continent,’ says Paul-Francois Cattier, MD of the organisation.

The ADCA says that by ‘establishing a set of best practices specific to Africa’s unique environmental and market conditions, the initiative aims to reduce environmental impacts through energy-efficient operations; enhance economic sustainability by promoting cost-effective energy management; strengthen energy supply security amid fluctuating regional power availability; and position Africa as a leader in green, energy-efficient data centre solutions, leveraging its potential to leapfrog traditional development pathways and adopt cutting-edge, sustainable technologies’.

In June this year, the ADCA launched the pilot project. ‘During this period, initiatives were launched across four African data centres, carefully selected to represent French-speaking and English-speaking regions,’ it said.

‘From the second quarter through the fourth quarter of 2025, a stakeholder working group will be formed. This group will comprise local industry players, regulators and technical experts, working collaboratively to analyse pilot data. Their aim will be to refine and tailor best practices, metrics and reporting schemes specifically suited to Africa’s unique environmental conditions, energy sources and market dynamics,’ said the association.

‘The insights gained will directly inform the development of an Africa-specific version of the code of conduct, ensuring relevance and practicality.’ It will be officially launched in November 2025.

So, as demand for computing continues to soar, particularly with AI and cloud services, the transition to renewable power sources is critical not only to reduce data centres’ environmental footprint, but also to ensure that Africa’s technological progress aligns more and more with environmental responsibility.

Images: iStock