Boom in data centers challenges clean power goals in Asia

TOKYO -- Japan is grappling with its decarbonization goals as the rapid growth of data centers is raising demand for power. The issue looms for both Japan, as it works to update its basic energy policy by March 2025, as well as for South Korea and Southeast Asia, where the market for data centers is also growing.

Cloud service companies are rushing to build data centers to process and store the vast amounts of information on which people's high-tech lifestyles run. The infrastructure is also needed to support the development of artificial intelligence. This, in turn, requires large amounts of electricity, both for number-crunching and to keep hardware cool. Global power demand from data centers could more than double from 2022 to 2026, the International Energy Agency estimated in January.