Accelerated electricity demand growth fueled by artificial intelligence (AI) adoption presents both a critical challenge and a transformative opportunity for businesses, according to BloombergNEF’s (BNEF) Long-Term Energy Market Outlook 2025, released April 28. The report projects a 75% surge in global power consumption by 2050, driven by economic expansion, electric vehicle (EV) adoption, cooling demand, and data center proliferation.
David Hostert, BNEF’s Head of Global Economics and Modeling and lead author, highlighted regional disparities: “Emerging economies in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa will account for the lion’s share of demand growth, offering massive investment opportunities in power infrastructure. We forecast data center electricity demand in these markets to skyrocket 6-16x by 2035, reaching 260 terawatt-hours (TWh).”
Data centers are emerging as a cornerstone of new power demand, constituting 4.5% of global electricity use by 2035 and 8.7% by 2050. BNEF estimates 362 gigawatts (GW) of new generation capacity will be needed globally by 2035 to meet this surge.
The U.S. stands as the single largest market driver. BNEF’s U.S. Data Center Market Outlook projects the sector’s share of total U.S. electricity consumption to rise from 3.5% in 2024 to 8.6% by 2035—outpacing all other major load categories. AI training workloads, requiring vast computational power and energy-intensive infrastructure, could propel U.S. data center electricity demand above EV growth over the next five years.
Under BNEF’s Economic Transition Scenario (ETS), renewable energy and EVs play expanding roles as cost competitiveness and technological maturity accelerate adoption. Renewable generation will surge 84% by 2030 and double again by 2050, meeting 67% of global power demand by mid-century (up from 33% in 2024). Similarly, EV passenger car sales will quadruple from 17.2 million units in 2024 to 42 million by 2030 and nearly double again to 80 million by 2050.
Widespread clean power and road transport electrification could reduce ETS emissions by 22% below 2005 levels by 2050, aligning with a 67% likelihood of limiting global warming to 2.6°C by 2100, notes Matthias Kimmel, BNEF’s Head of Energy Economics and co-author.
“Aggressive investment and rapid deployment of clean energy technologies across markets are pivotal for meaningful change,” Kimmel emphasized. The ETS projects nearly 6 trillion in renewable energy investments from 2025–2035 and 10.55 trillion through 2050. Policymakers and investors must leverage existing solutions—renewables, storage, EVs—while capitalizing on emerging opportunities in energy supply and security.
While electrification could slash oil demand in transportation by 40% by mid-century, natural gas will gain prominence under the ETS due to projected lower long-term fuel prices and rising data center power needs. Global gas demand is set to grow 25% between 2024–2050. Conversely, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage (CCS), clean fuels, and low-carbon industrial processes will struggle to scale meaningfully, unlike renewables and EVs.
