New report finds Microsoft’s AI data center demand to surge 600%, require as much power as entire New England region

SEATTLE (Traditional Puget Sound Salish and Duwamish Lands) — A new report released today by environmental advocacy group Stand.earth finds that Microsoft’s rapid expansion of AI data centers is set to lock in massive new fossil fuel infrastructure, undermining the company’s 100% renewable energy and carbon-negative commitments, and threatening community health across the U.S.

The report, titled Global Ramifications, Local Impact: Microsoft’s AI Pollution Footprint, finds that Microsoft’s electricity demand for AI data centers will surge over 600% by 2030, which is enough to power the entire New England region, or 12% of all homes in the U.S. Despite the company’s significant investments in renewable-energy generation, the report also reveals that most of Microsoft’s North American data centers still draw at least 50% of their power from coal and gas grids — which will result in utilities planning new gas plants, pipeline expansions, and coal-plant life extensions to meet the growing load.

• Click here to download the report

The report’s key findings include the following:

• North American electricity demand from Microsoft data centers will surge over 600% by 2030 — enough to power 12% of all homes in the U.S., or almost the entire electricity consumption of the New England region (i.e., Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont).
• In most states hosting Microsoft facilities, grid electricity remains at least 50% fossil fuel-generated, and new data centers will instigate additional coal and gas consumption.
• Microsoft’s data center pollution (i.e., Scope 1 and 2) reached over 7.87 million metric tons of CO₂e (i.e., carbon dioxide equivalent) globally in its 2023 fiscal year — an amount that exceeds the annual climate pollution generated by the state of Vermont.
• Colocation deals obscure the full scale of pollution: Microsoft leads all hyperscalers in pre-leased third-party capacity, but provides 0% dedicated reporting on its energy use or pollution.

“The sheer scale of Microsoft’s AI data center buildout could have global implications for the climate, and it also comes with serious impacts for local communities. These data centers contribute to higher electricity rates and raise concerns over water supply in the regions where they are clustered,” said Rachel Kitchin, Senior Corporate Campaigner at Stand.earth. “If Microsoft is set to demand as much energy as an entire U.S. region, the least the company can do is ensure that demand isn’t met with fossil fuels that pollute local communities. Microsoft can’t hand-wave away community concerns with sleight-of-hand promises of future clean energy, or greenwash its ongoing love affair with fossil fuels — these new data centers must be backed by new, locally sourced, 24/7 renewable energy before they go online.”

A case study included in the new report analyzes proposals underway in Person County, North Carolina, which is home to multiple coal plants, including one of the largest coal plants in the U.S. As a result, its communities have dealt with decades of toxic pollution, including groundwater with high levels of arsenic, chromium, cobalt, and selenium, as well as radioactivity 11 times the maximum contaminant concentration limit. A planned AI build-out in the county has prompted Duke Energy to propose new gas turbines, pipeline extensions, and even consider extending coal-plant operations — threatening air quality, water supplies, and community well-being in a historically marginalized region. While Microsoft has not formally announced that this site will house a data center, at a spring 2025 hearing held by the North Carolina House Committee on Energy and Public Utilities, an American Petroleum Institute representative gave a presentation that identified this site as a Microsoft data center.

“Big companies like Microsoft can make their own clean energy and work with the utility to make sure that everyone has enough reliable power – and regular customers shouldn’t have to pay for expensive dirty power plants and pipelines when our needs can be served by clean energy,” said Steph Gans, Assistant Director of Clean Water for North Carolina. “It’s like asking us to pay for Bill Gates’s electric bill. If Microsoft really didn’t want their data centers to be used as an excuse to build more fossil fuel projects and charge customers for it, they would intervene in North Carolina’s carbon plan proceedings, they would speak out against lobbyists who use their projects as a reason to push gas-friendly legislation, and they would already have a plan to use clean energy for their projects.”

The report concludes with the following recommendations:

• New data centers must be powered by 24/7 renewable energy: To ensure new data center energy demand isn’t being met by fossil fuels or false solutions that pose new risks, Microsoft must make a commitment to build out local, additional 24/7 renewable energy infrastructure before its data centers begin operation.
• Increase transparency around hourly matching energy procurement: Microsoft should publicly report granular data around the implementation of hourly matching to ensure the energy needs of its data centers are met by renewable power at all times of the day.
• Scale up community benefit programs: Microsoft should ensure timely, active, and good-faith outreach to communities where it wants to establish data centers.
• Establish and enforce these same renewable energy, transparency, and community benefit standards for colocation data centers: As a large user of colocation facilities, Microsoft should use its power to pressure the colocation data centers it contracts with to follow the same protocols it implements to reduce environmental and community harms.
• Strengthen voluntary and regulatory reporting standards: Leading AI companies must advocate in support of ending reporting loopholes in global target-setting initiatives such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, which permit low quality renewable energy procurement, and support a shift to granular (i.e., 24/7) energy accounting.

“Right now we’re at a crossroads. The direction Microsoft chooses for its AI strategy will directly impact both the global climate and local communities across the U.S.,” said Kitchin. “Done correctly, Microsoft and other leading AI providers have a chance to rapidly accelerate our society’s shift to a renewable energy future with a new type of climate commitment fit for the age of AI. Microsoft can provide real benefits to the communities and grids where they operate, and make itself a major force for positive change on both a local and global scale.”

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Media Contact:

Shane Reese, Stand.earth Corporate Campaigns Media Director, shane.reese@stand.earth, +1 919 339 3785 (U.S. Eastern Time)