Countries are struggling to meet the rising energy demands of data centers
#Mexico’s lagging energy grid is forcing companies, including #Microsoft, to use generators.
By Daniela Dib and Pablo Jiménez Arandia, 15 September 2025
Excerpt: "That Mexico’s electric grid is struggling does not bode well for a country trying to position itself as a data center hub, and which is already home to 150 #DataCenters, including from Microsoft, #AmazonWebServices, and #Google. Together, they have invested over $7 billion in the country since 2020.
"Like Mexico, countries around the world are scrambling to meet the rising energy demands of data centers, spurred by a boom in #ArtificialIntelligence and #CloudComputing. Like Microsoft, some companies have tapped alternative — and sometimes more #polluting — energy sources. Mexico’s power grid faces a deficit of 48,000 megawatt-hours by 2030, which is more than half the country’s output in 2023, according to the Mexican Institute For Competitiveness, a research center. As the country lures more data center-related investments, more companies may follow in Microsoft’s footsteps.
" 'This case is part of a broader global pattern, particularly in areas where the rapid deployment of #DigitalInfrastructure is outpacing the #EnergyGrid’s capacity,' Marina Otero Verzier, a visiting professor at Columbia University who researches data centers, told Rest of World. 'In some cases, corporations frame fossil-fueled generators as temporary solutions, which, over time, become normalized.'
"Microsoft set up its data center last year in #ColónMexico, an industrial hub with a population of over 67,000 people, but was unable to plug into the country’s energy grid, which is itself largely powered by #FossilFuels. In documents filed to Mexico’s environmental secretariat in 2023, Microsoft said the grid would not be fully operative to the company until mid-2027 due to 'long construction times required in [Microsoft’s] contract with CFE,' referring to the Federal Electricity Commission. The following year, the secretariat approved Microsoft’s request to use seven generators to temporarily power its data center.
"A spokesperson for Microsoft declined to comment on how the company is powering its data centers in Mexico now, and whether it will continue using generators.
"Worldwide, nearly 60% of the electricity used by data centers comes from fossil fuels including #NaturalGas. #Renewables including #solar and #wind meet more than a quarter of the demand, according to the International Energy Agency. But while the share of renewable energy is increasing, the rapid growth in the demand for data centers is outpacing the expansion of renewable energy infrastructure, posing a challenge to the climate goals of countries and tech companies alike."
Read more / listen:
https://restofworld.org/2025/ai-energy-supply-data-centers/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
#EnergyUsage #AIDataCenters #AISucks #CoPilot #CorporateGreed #CorporateColonialism #WaterIsLife #Polluters #BigOilAndGas #BigData #CorporatePolluters #AI
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