Data centers in Iceland consume more electricity than households as energy usage quadruples since 2023

Data centers in Iceland consumed more electricity than all of the country’s households combined last year. The energy usage of data centers has nearly quadrupled since 2023, accounting for over 5% of the country’s total electricity production.

Between 2017 and 2023, electricity consumption by data centers surged from 279 gigawatt-hours to 1,051 gigawatt-hours. However, there was a slight drop in consumption from the previous year, peaking in 2022 at 1,156 gigawatt-hours.

In response to a parliamentary inquiry, Iceland’s Minister of Environment, Energy, and Climate, Guðlaugur Þór Þórdarson, clarified that data centers used slightly more than 12% more electricity than all households combined last year. Household electricity consumption rose by 114 gigawatt-hours during the same period, meaning the increase for data centers was approximately seven times greater.

The minister also noted that overall electricity production in Iceland increased by 1,005 gigawatt-hours from 2017 to 2023, a rise of about 5%. By the end of last year, the nation produced over 20 terawatt-hours of electricity, with data centers utilising around 5% of this total.

As concerns grow regarding energy consumption and sustainability, data centers, which have become integral to the digital economy, are under scrutiny in Iceland.