数据中心：评估可持续性

knightfrank.co.uk/research A data-driven view of how the data centre sector isadapting to energy constraints, decarbonisationgoals, and the growth of AI workloads November2025 Powering the digitaleconomy demand pressures. The scaling ofAI workloads, the push for cloudcapacity, and the shift towardsreal-time digital services havecollided with existing bottlenecks,most notably energy availability.In several regions, including theUK, grid infrastructure isstruggling to keep up. The UK’sNational Grid, largely designed fora fossil-based, centralised energy Data centres have quickly becomethe backbone of the moderneconomy, powering the world'sdigital infrastructure, from AImodels and streaming platforms tohealthcare systems and financialnetworks. Every day, the worldgenerates more than 400 millionterabytes (TB) of data, a figure that picture is more complex and, inmany ways, more positive than What is frequently missing frompublic discourse is a groundedview of how far the industry hasprogressed and where the mostmeaningful challenges remain.This paper aims to dissect thatprogress by offering a data-drivenlook at the forces reshaping one ofthe world’s most critical This growth has created whatmany are calling a perfect storm of “Artificial intelligence (AI)has the potential to reduceglobal emissions by morethan 2.5% annually by 2035,based on estimated savings That innovation is critical forbroader decarbonisation goals.Data centres and the broaderinformation, communication andtechnology (ICT) sector act as keyenablers of emissions reductionsacross industries. In particular,artificial intelligence (AI) has thepotential to reduce globalemissions by more than 2.5%annually by 2035, based onestimated savings in the power, centres have come under anintense spotlight, especially from aclimate perspective. Longconsidered as energy-hungry andresource-intensive, data centreshave become central in debates Reality check Increasing energy demand, AI-driven growth and risingsustainability pressures have madedata centres a target for criticism.But assumptions often overlookhow far the sector has come inefficiency, clean power adoption than hyperscalers, who havefollowed a similar upward trend in procurement, energy storage,and grid decarbonisation. IEA data on the top 50 datacentre markets by operationalcapacity show many countries aredecarbonising their grids. Norway,Sweden, and France alreadysource over 90% of power fromrenewables, while the fastestgrowth since 2020 has come inPortugal (+27%), the Netherlands(+23%), Chile (+22%), Germany(+12%), and Poland (+12%). As grids The shift toward renewablesreflects both corporateresponsibility pressures and theeconomic benefits of stable, low-cost power, especially in theNordics, where abundant hydro MYTH 1: THE SECTOR’S POWERMIX IS MOSTLY CARBON-INTENSIVE A sign of stronger commitmentis that 21 hyperscalers andcolocation providers have joinedRE100, pledging to match 100% oftheir electricity demand withrenewables. Yet, even theremaining fossil fuel sharerepresents a substantial volume ofcarbon-intensive power, given thesector’s rising energy demand. REALITY:Data centres are stillwidely perceived as heavily relianton fossil fuels, with low-carbonenergy playing only a minor role.The sector has made significantprogress. By 2024, low-carbonsources1supplied 66% of thesector’s electricity, up from 50% in MYTH 2: MORE CAPACITY = MORECARBON REALITY:A commonmisconception with the datacentre sector is that expandingcapacity inevitably drives highercarbon emissions. However, the whose electricity demandexpanded to reach 197 TWh in2024, overtaking hyperscalers, Between 2020 and 2024, total livesupply nearly doubled, increasingfrom 25.7GW to 50.3GW, acompound annual growth rate MYTH 4: PUE GAINS ARE OVER REALITY:Annual average PowerUsage Effectiveness (PUE)5improved from 1.39 in 2020 to 1.33in 2024. Hyperscalers remain thebenchmark, sustaining low PUElevels around 1.17, while colocationand service providers havenarrowed the gap, improving from1.46 to 1.39 over the same period.While incremental, these gains are (CAGR) of 18%. Over the sameperiod, combined Scope 1 and 2emissions3rose from 83 to 103MtCO₂e, a much lower 6% CAGR .In other words, capacity grew Even with the acceleratedexpansion, data centres stillrepresent a relatively small shareof global power use, with globalelectricity demand rising from0.8% in 2020 to 1.2% in 2024. TheIEA projects that total data centre three times faster than emissions.Despite energy consumption rising17% per year between 2020 and2024, from 208 to 384 TWh, thesector’s carbon intensity4fell byaround 9% annually, from 398 to270 gCO₂/kWh. If data centres hadmaintained 2020 carbon intensity As data centre demand grows,power availability has become alimiting factor to scaling. In manymajor markets, long grid-connection backlogs makesecuring sufficient capacity thekey bottleneck for newdevelopment. Developers are nowlooking further ahead t