Google’s electricity consumption rose 37% in 2025, the company’s largest single-year increase on record, driven predominantly by the buildout of AI data center infrastructure, according to its 11th annual Environmental Report, released June 30.
The jump brings Google’s cumulative electricity use growth to more than 250% since 2019. Electricity consumption reached approximately 29 terawatt-hours for the year, according to the report.
Despite the surge in energy demand, Google said it reduced its operational emissions, those covering its direct energy use, known as Scope 1 and 2 emissions, by 2% year-over-year.
The company said it achieved the reduction by matching 100% of its electricity consumption with renewable energy purchases for the ninth consecutive year and signing agreements for more than 12 gigawatts of new clean energy capacity in 2025. This includes a deal to restart Iowa’s 600-megawatt Duane Arnold nuclear plant with NextEra Energy, a 3-gigawatt hydropower framework with Brookfield, and a power purchase agreement for fusion energy with Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
The reduction did not extend across Google’s full emissions footprint. The company’s supply-chain emissions, known as Scope 3, grew 25% year-over-year, with data center construction alone contributing approximately 2.3 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Google attributed a significant share of that increase to semiconductor suppliers operating on carbon-intensive electricity grids in Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam and India.
Google acknowledged the widening gap between its infrastructure growth and its clean energy transition directly in the report, stating that its “AI infrastructure buildout is currently accelerating faster than the grid is decarbonizing.”
The company has pre-committed data center capacity through 2027, and analysts tracking the figures have projected a further 25%-35% increase in electricity demand in the absence of a chip-level efficiency breakthrough.
Google’s disclosure adds to a broader pattern among major technology companies reporting sharply rising energy consumption tied to AI infrastructure expansion, as data center operators globally compete to secure computing capacity, power supply and land for new facilities.
