With global power demand from data centers expected to greater than double by 2030, the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) in September launched an effort that brings together MIT researchers and industry experts to explore revolutionary solutions for powering the data-driven future. At its annual research conference, MITEI announced the Data Center Power Forum, a targeted research effort for MITEI member corporations taken with addressing the challenges of knowledge center power demand. The Data Center Power Forum builds on lessons from MITEI’s May 2025 symposium on the energy to power the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and focus panels related to data centers at the autumn 2024 research conference.
In the USA, data centers consumed 4 percent of the country’s electricity in 2023, with demand expected to extend to 9 percent by 2030, in keeping with the Electric Power Research Institute. Much of the expansion in demand is from the increasing use of AI, which is placing an unprecedented strain on the electrical grid. This surge in demand presents a serious challenge for the technology and energy sectors, government policymakers, and on a regular basis consumers, who may even see their electric bills skyrocket consequently.
“MITEI has long supported research on ways to provide more efficient and cleaner energy and to administer the electrical grid. In recent times, MITEI has also funded dozens of research projects relevant to data center energy issues. Constructing on this history and knowledge base, MITEI’s Data Center Power Forum is convening a specialized community of industry members who’ve an important stake within the sustainable growth of AI and the acceleration of solutions for powering data centers and expanding the grid,” says William H. Green, the director of MITEI and the Hoyt C. Hottel Professor of Chemical Engineering.
MITEI’s mission is to advance zero- and low-carbon solutions to expand energy access and mitigate climate change. MITEI works with corporations from across the energy innovation chain, including within the infrastructure, automotive, electric power, energy, natural resources, and insurance sectors. MITEI member corporations have expressed strong interest within the Data Center Power Forum and are committing to support focused research on a big selection of energy issues related to data center expansion, Green says.
MITEI’s Data Center Power Forum will provide its member corporations with reliable insights into energy supply, grid load operations and management, the built environment, and electricity market design and regulatory policy for data centers. The forum complements MIT’s deep expertise in adjoining topics reminiscent of low-power processors, efficient algorithms, task-specific AI, photonic devices, quantum computing, and the societal consequences of knowledge center expansion. As a part of the forum, MITEI’s Future Energy Systems Center is funding projects relevant to data center energy in its upcoming proposal cycles. MITEI Research Scientist Deep Deka has been named this system manager for the forum.
“Determining the right way to meet the facility demands of knowledge centers is an advanced challenge. Our research is coming at this from multiple directions, from ways to expand transmission capability throughout the electrical grid to be able to bring power to where it is required, to making sure the standard of electrical service for existing users shouldn’t be diminished when recent data centers come online, and to shifting computing tasks to times and places when and where energy is on the market on the grid,” said Deka.
MITEI currently sponsors substantial research related to data center energy topics across several MIT departments. The prevailing research portfolio includes greater than a dozen projects related to data centers, including low- or zero-carbon solutions for energy supply and infrastructure, electrical grid management, and electricity market policy. MIT researchers funded through MITEI’s industry consortium are also designing more energy-efficient power electronics and processors and investigating behind-the-meter low-/no-carbon power plants and energy storage. MITEI-supported experts are studying the right way to use AI to optimize electrical distribution and the siting of knowledge centers and conducting techno-economic analyses of knowledge center power schemes. MITEI’s consortium projects are also bringing fresh perspectives to data center cooling challenges and considering policy approaches to balance the interests of shareholders.
By drawing together industry stakeholders from across the AI and grid value chain, the Data Center Power Forum enables a richer dialog about solutions to power, grid, and carbon management problems in a noncommercial and collaborative setting.
“The chance to fulfill and to carry discussions on key data center challenges with other forum members from different sectors, in addition to with MIT faculty members and research scientists, is a novel good thing about this MITEI-led effort,” Green says.
MITEI addressed the difficulty of knowledge center power needs with its company members during its fall 2024 Annual Research Conference with a panel session titled, “The acute challenge of powering data centers in a decarbonized way.” MITEI Director of Research Randall Field led a discussion with representatives from large technology corporations Google and Microsoft, generally known as “hyperscalers,” in addition to Madrid-based infrastructure developer Ferrovial S.E. and utility company Exelon Corp. One other conference session addressed the related topic, “Energy storage and grid expansion.” This past spring, MITEI focused its annual Spring Symposium on data centers, hosting faculty members and researchers from MIT and other universities, business leaders, and a representative of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a full day of sessions on the subject, “AI and energy: Peril and promise.”
