FEATURE traditional energy demand patterns, anticipating peak demand growth to 84 GW by 2030 from 62.3 GW in 2020, with a total generation capacity target of 123 GW by 2032.
What the 2022 planning didn’ t anticipate was the AI infrastructure explosion: NEOM’ s 1.5 GW net-zero AI data center, G42 ' s 5 GW AI campus( equivalent to 8 % of Saudi Arabia ' s 2020 peak demand), and the reality that AI-focused data centres require up to 10 times more power than traditional facilities. Traditional data centers operate at 5 – 10 kW per rack, while AI data centres require 60 or more KW per rack. This 6 – 12x power density increase, combined with gigawatt-scale facility announcements, represents 5 – 10 GW of unexpected concentrated demand that wasn’ t in any 2022 planning scenarios.
From a pure generation perspective, Saudi Arabia appears positioned to handle this challenge, with current capacity around 66 GW and the www. intelligentcio. com
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