The increasing adoption of AI technologies is setting up the data center industry for a rocky 2025, with growth anticipated to surpass sustainability goals and potentially ignite public unrest against new developments. As AI’s energy demands escalate, the need to reform energy supply methods to server farms becomes evident. Uptime Institute’s latest report offers insights into these forthcoming challenges, highlighting a surge in data center demand driven by AI advancements.

The report cautions that data centers are poised to become contentious due to their escalating resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, which could foster local resistance to new constructions. Governments, meanwhile, might prioritize economic gains over these environmental concerns.

Uptime foresees a necessity for data centers to actively engage in energy grid management, given their substantial and rising power requirements. Innovative solutions such as grid-interactive UPS technology, already employed by Microsoft, could offer pathways to seamlessly integrate backup power capabilities into broader energy networks.

Further into the future, data centers might need a significant internal overhaul to accommodate the increasing power demands of AI infrastructure, pushing rack power levels closer to those in supercomputing. This adjustment will necessitate adopting innovative power distribution systems, though this evolution could take time to materialize.

Finally, the report anticipates that AI hardware options will diversify beyond Nvidia’s GPUs, encouraging data centers to explore alternative solutions to meet both efficiency and environmental objectives. The ongoing adaptation of AI technology will test operators’ agility in balancing numerous priorities, from service obligations to sustainability targets.