Hundreds of large-scale datacentre projects around the world are facing delays or cancellations, as surging energy demands from artificial intelligence outpace power grid capabilities.
A local court ruling halted the Prince William Digital Gateway in Virginia, USA, after a legal brief argued the 2,000-acre site would mar a Civil War battlefield.
A key backer has since pulled out.
The Uptime Institute identified 250 global datacentre projects exceeding 100MW in energy demand announced between 2021 and 2024.
It said approximately half of those projects will either not happen or face completion delays.
Mega-projects cancelled last year include Project Range in Arizona and the Cyberjaya campus in Malaysia. The Prince William Gateway is also on the cancelled list.
Jay Dietrich, a research director at Uptime, cited several factors working against proposed projects: developers without datacentre experience, lack of committed tenants, massive energy and water consumption, concentration in datacentre corridors, and supply chain issues for chips.
"The global supply chain just cannot support the level of projects out there, on the timeline that is projected," Dietrich said.
Local community and environmental opposition also plays a role, as seen in the Prince William case.
Uptime says we are entering an era of mega-gigawatt datacentres.
It identified six projects last year aiming for at least 5GW of power each – five in the US and one in the UAE.
Ireland’s peak energy demand is 6GW.
Taking planned projects announced last year alone, and assuming they run at 25% of planned power capacity, they would consume 1.3% of the world’s projected electricity usage for 2025, according to Uptime.
That is nearly double current datacentre demand.
About 80% of the new power demand comes from US projects. Uptime is not optimistic about these power needs being met.
"Surging datacentre power demands, particularly in North America, cannot be supported by power grids already operating under heavy strain," Uptime said in a January report.
In California, datacentres stand empty for years because the local grid cannot supply them with power.
In Amsterdam, an Australian developer sued the Dutch grid after its connection request was denied.
Some observers are more upbeat.
JLL expects around 1,200 datacentres to be built globally between now and 2030, driven overwhelmingly by AI.
Andrew Batson, global head of datacentre research for JLL, said he is confident the capacity will be built, citing improvements in battery storage and onsite power generation.
"I am confident that the industry will work through the energy challenges," Batson said.
According to an Uptime report, the seven largest planned datacentres propose a combined 45GW of onsite power, primarily from gas.
The UK’s peak energy demand is 45GW.
