While the rapid growth in artificial intelligence and cloud computing turns data centers around the world into huge energy consumers, energy storage systems play a critical role in ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply to these facilities.
According to the global data center map published on LinkedIn by Data Center and Hyperscalers Strategic Advisor Guy Massey, the number of data centers worldwide reached 12 thousand 259 as of the end of September.
Approximately 40 percent of data centers worldwide are located in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom with 4.6 percent, Germany with 4.3 percent, France with 3.2 percent and China with 3.1 percent.
Data centers are facilities consisting of a large number of servers and network equipment where digital information is stored, processed and made accessible over the internet. Cloud computing is widely used in the world as a technology that allows data and software to be stored and used on remote servers accessible over the internet instead of personal devices.
Artificial intelligence, whose popularity and use has become widespread in recent years, is seen as a set of technologies that can perform tasks associated with human intelligence such as learning, prediction, decision-making and content production by analyzing large amounts of data.
While the rapid growth in all these technologies turns data centers around the world into huge energy consumers, energy storage systems play a critical role in ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply to these facilities.
THE ENERGY NEEDS OF DATA CENTERS INCREASE BATTERY PRODUCTION
Kadem Usta, President of Battery Manufacturers and Suppliers Association (PİLDER), stated in his evaluation to AA correspondent that artificial intelligence and cloud computing revolution have turned data centers around the world into huge energy consumers.
Stating that the clearest change in the huge sector is that the facilities in question operate uninterruptedly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, Usta said, "Uninterrupted electricity is vital for these technologies, but existing electricity networks cannot always keep up with this instantaneous and huge power demand. The prolongation of connection times to the network and the pressure of uninterruption make Fixed Energy Storage Systems (BESS) mandatory." he said.
Usta pointed out that this unprecedented energy hunger created by artificial intelligence-supported data centers is the second biggest driving force growing the global battery industry after the electric vehicle revolution, and said:
"We see the pressure created by this 'second driving force' strikingly in global production figures. Global lithium-ion battery production, which was 1.05 terawatt-hours in 2023 and 1.6 terawatt-hours in 2024, reached 2.3 terawatt-hours with a tremendous leap in 2025. More importantly, 20 percent of this huge capacity of 2.3 terawatt-hours produced is now direct energy It consists of storage (ESS) batteries.”
Usta stated that the battery industry is no longer just an industry that drives vehicles on the roads, but has turned into a strategic production giant that ensures the uninterrupted operation of the entire digital world, the internet and artificial intelligence.
Emphasizing that the chemistry of the job is also important, Usta said that cost and fire safety are the most critical factors for these technologies in huge facilities such as data centers.
Stating that 65 percent of last year's global production of 2.3 terawatt hours consisted of LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) batteries with high thermal safety, Usta said, "In this situation, where 86 percent of global battery production (1980 gigawatt hours) takes place in China today, the endless energy appetite of data centers is completely reshaping production lines and supply chains all over the world. In summary, battery production is constantly growing in order for digital data to continue to flow." "We are in a brand new era." made his assessment.
