This report examines how the growth of digital services, and the
data centres that support them, affects energy consumption in the
UK.
From: Department for Energy
Security and Net Zero
Published: 14 August 2025
Last updated: 28 July 2026 See all updates
Documents
Impact of growth of data centres
on energy consumption
PDF, 2.07
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Impact of growth of data centres
on energy consumption: follow up study
PDF, 1.7
MB, 164 pages
Details
This report by Europe Economics, commissioned by the Department
for Energy Security and Net Zero, examines how the growth of
digital services, and the data centres that support them, affects
energy consumption in the UK. While digitalisation introduces new
electricity demand, it can also displace energy-intensive
physical activities.
The study developed a new methodology for estimating the total
electricity consumption of digital services relative to credible
physical alternatives. The approach considers energy use under a
representative scenario for the service delivered to the end-user
which is the same for both digital and physical approaches to
delivery. In this way, the methodology abstracts away from any
increase in activity resulting from digitalisation (e.g. due to
cost reductions or the redeployment of labour), and thus compares
energy use in a hypothetical world in which digitalisation does
not lead to economic growth.
Unlike earlier analyses that often focus on carbon emissions or
assess individual system components in isolation, this study
offers a comparison focused on energy consumption across the full
delivery chain. In the digital case, this includes energy used by
data centres (both for IT equipment and for supporting
infrastructure), transmission networks, and end-user devices. The
analysis of physical alternatives captures energy used (where
relevant) in manufacturing, transportation, retail operations,
office-based service delivery and end-user devices.
The report focuses on three use cases:
- video streaming versus Blu-ray discs
- eBook reading (as an example of electronic publishing) versus
printed books
-
AI-powered
translation (as an example of an AI application) versus
human translation
For each use case, the energy consumption under low, medium, and
high assumptions has been calculated. The results show that in
all three use cases, the digital option either matches or
substantially undercuts the electricity use of the physical
alternative.
