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fatherzinetoday at 12:19 AM1 replyview on HN

> U.S. data centers consumed 183 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2024, according to IEA estimates. That works out to more than 4% of the country’s total electricity consumption last year – and is roughly equivalent to the annual electricity demand of the entire nation of Pakistan. By 2030, this figure is projected to grow by 133% to 426 TWh.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/10/24/what-we-k...

There are ~10M cows nationally. The average energy consumption is ~1000 kWh/cow annually. Summing up, the entire dairy industry consumes ~10TWh. That is less than 10% of the national data center energy burn. [edit: was off by a factor of 10]


Replies

Grimblewaldtoday at 7:50 AM

Not to mention dairy cows store chemical energy for human consumption, so we got some of the energy invested back.