Data centres are consuming 6% of electricity in the UK and the US, according to research by the International Data Center Authority. It also shows the proportion of electricity used to power artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet has risen 15% globally in the past two years.
Meanwhile, Bsria’s 2026 worldwide air conditioning report, published this month, says AI-fuelled growth in data centres has created demand for more advanced liquid cooling solutions.
An increase in the number of data centres and higher heat densities per facility, pushing racks beyond what traditional air systems can handle, have accelerated the adoption of liquid cooling technologies, the report says.
The cooling market has also diverged, adds Bsria – into a high-value commercial sector, driven by specialist applications, and a high-volume residential sector, in which ‘intense competition is supressing prices’.
In the commercial sector, average selling prices for products such as chillers and air handling units rose by 3.6% and 4.5% respectively in 2025. In the residential sector, however, the average price for ductless split systems has declined.
Bsria’s research also confirms that 2025 marked the beginning of a recovery for the global heat pump market. While air conditioning systems are usually associated with cooling, they are playing an ‘increasingly important’ role in heating installations, the association says.
