How AI Is Driving Energy Demand and Advancing Manufacturing

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we live, work and manufacture. Tasks that once took days can now be completed in milliseconds, with nothing more than a smartphone. But behind this digital acceleration lies a growing infrastructure that demands vast energy resources.

Artificial intelligence in manufacturing is enabling smarter, more adaptive systems, while our reliance on the digital world means we’re consuming vast amounts of energy and requiring large data centres to process and store the data.

This AI and data revolution is fundamentally reshaping the power generation landscape and shaping the future of AI infrastructure.

The Scale of the Challenge

The growth is extraordinary. Global electricity consumption from data centres is expected to rise from 415 TWh in 2024 to 945 TWh by 2030, surpassing the current total energy use of Japan. This tidal wave of demand is driven primarily by artificial intelligence applications that need exponentially more power than conventional digital usage. As questions like “what are data centres powering?” become central to global strategy, their scale and energy needs are becoming harder to ignore.

A single interaction with AI consumes ten times more electricity than a standard search engine. Even seemingly minor inputs, such as routine politeness in chatbot interactions, add up at scale. The market competition between AI systems also means models are competing to produce the most impressive responses, and in-turn demanding more power with each user prompt. Electricity is consumed not only for storage and processing but also in vast amounts for their cooling. Goldman Sachs forecasts that global data centre power demand could increase by 165% by 2030, requiring substantial infrastructure expansion to meet this unprecedented surge.

A Diverse Energy Response

Meeting this challenge will require every tool in the energy generation toolbox. While renewables are set to lead the charge, with solar and wind projected to account for 95% of new renewable capacity additions through 2030, natural gas will continue to play a critical role as a reliable, fast and dispatchable power source. Natural gas currently provides 26% of global data centre electricity and is projected to grow by 175 TWh to meet future demand.

This multi-source approach creates opportunities across the entire power generation spectrum. The gas turbine market alone is projected to exceed $23 billion by 2028, with heavy-duty turbines experiencing 7.5% annual growth. Simultaneously, the world is preparing to add over 5,500 GW of new renewable energy capacity between 2024 and 2030. That’s nearly three times the expansion seen in the previous seven years.

There is also likely to be a large growth market in innovations for data centres themselves, not just in supplying them with power. For example, new technology is being developed for the capturing and recycling of excess heat produced by the centres, and the cooling systems of data centres are seeing lots of research too. Microsoft have even successfully trialed a data centre/server to operate submerged in the North Sea.

The Infrastructure Investment Imperative

The scale of required infrastructure investment is breathtaking. Estimates suggest $720 billion in grid spending through 2030 just to accommodate global data centre infrastructure growth. Lead times for powering new data centres in major markets now exceed three years, creating urgent pressure for rapid and reliable component manufacturing.

This infrastructure push extends beyond data centres to the fundamental power generation and transmission systems that will supply them. Every gas turbine, every wind turbine and every piece of grid infrastructure requires precisely manufactured components that can deliver decades of reliable service. The manufacturing sector's ability to scale production while maintaining quality will determine whether we can meet the AI revolution's energy demands.

Engineering Excellence for Energy Infrastructure

Power generation equipment, whether gas turbines, renewable energy systems or grid infrastructure, requires components that can withstand extreme conditions while maintaining optimal performance over decades of operation.

At Grainger & Worrall, we’ve evolved our advanced sand casting capabilities to meet the growing demands of energy infrastructure and AI applications. From large, complex gas turbine components to lightweight structural elements for renewable energy systems, our precision casting technology enables the performance breakthroughs that modern power generation requires.

Positioning for the Future

As the energy landscape transforms, manufacturers who can deliver complex, high-performance components at scale will find themselves in one of the largest infrastructure buildouts in human history. The culmination of AI-driven demand, renewable energy expansion and grid modernisation creates a unique position for advanced manufacturing, where their capabilities are relied on for technological progression.

We collaborate with industry leaders and innovators, supplying components that will power the artificial intelligence revolution. Our decades of experience in complex casting and continuous investment in leading-edge technology position us well to support the energy infrastructure that will define the next decade of technological advancement.

As AI accelerates the need for high-performance energy infrastructure, manufacturers must respond with scale, speed and precision. With this dependency of artificial intelligence on energy infrastructures, advanced manufacturing becomes the bridge between technological possibility and practical reality.

Perhaps there's reassurance in knowing that the future of artificial intelligence is still grounded in the ingenuity, materials and energy systems of the real, physical world.