(November 12, 2024) - Ever wonder what’s fueling your favorite apps (and the AI boom)? It is data centers—massive digital warehouses running 24/7 and using power at record levels — enough to power millions and millions of homes.
Data analysis from cloud security experts at Upwind uncovers which U.S. data centers are the fastest-growing and compares their power consumption with average household energy consumption.
Phoenix ranks as the #3 fastest-growing data center region in the U.S., with capacity projected to grow 554% — reaching energy needs that match that needed to power nearly 4.4 million homes.
That's more homes than in the entire state of Arizona.
Top 5 Fastest-Growing Data Center Regions:
- Las Vegas/Reno: +953%, powering 3.1M homes—more than all of Denmark
- Salt Lake City: +700%
- Phoenix: +554%
- Atlanta: +484%
- Dallas-Fort Worth: +355%
Northern Virginia leads the pack, projected to power nearly 9.1 million homes—almost as many as all of Australia.
The upside? These data centers bring significant economic boosts to local areas, generating $243M in local spending and creating hundreds of jobs. And tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are betting on nuclear power to meet this energy demand sustainably, with U.S. nuclear capacity expected to triple over the next 25 years.
Here's a link to the data from Upwind's complete analysis.