The rapid proliferation of data centers in the US - driven partly by the adoption of artificial intelligence - has set off alarm bells about the industry's environmental impact. We compiled detailed information on 2,132 US data centers operating between September 2023 and August 2024 and determined their electricity consumption, electricity sources, and attributable CO$_{2}$e emissions. Our findings reveal that data centers accounted for more than 4% of total US electricity consumption - with 56% derived from fossil fuels - generating more than 105 million tons of CO$_{2}$e (2.18% of US emissions in 2023). Data centers' carbon intensity - the amount of CO$_{2}$e emitted per unit of electricity consumed - exceeded the US average by 48%. Our data pipeline and visualization tools can be used to assess current and future environmental impacts of data centers.

翻译：美国数据中心的快速扩张——部分由人工智能的采用所驱动——已为该行业的环境影响敲响了警钟。我们汇编了2023年9月至2024年8月期间运营的2,132个美国数据中心的详细信息，并确定了其电力消耗、电力来源及相应的CO$_{2}$e排放。我们的研究结果表明，数据中心占美国总电力消耗的4%以上——其中56%来自化石燃料——产生了超过1.05亿吨的CO$_{2}$e（占2023年美国排放量的2.18%）。数据中心的碳强度——即每消耗单位电力所排放的CO$_{2}$e量——比美国平均水平高出48%。我们的数据流水线和可视化工具可用于评估数据中心当前及未来的环境影响。