As generative AI grows in popularity in almost every sphere of life, an “inconvenient truth” is quietly emerging in more and more business conversations around the world.
K Bloomberg A recent headline came out: “AI is a massive electricity guzzler. This is awesome.”
dig a little deeper, Barons I recently wrote about “How AI is Disrupting Power.” Here is an excerpt:
“Elon Musk recently made a bold prediction about artificial intelligence — and not one that he views as an existential threat to humanity. Growing demand for power-hungry AI chips could soon lead to electricity shortages,” Musk said.
“Next year, you’ll see that they can’t find enough electricity to power all the chips,” the Tesla CEO said at the Bosch ConnectedWorld conference late last month.
“While the increased demand for AI may not lead to widespread power outages, the AI boom is already changing how and where data centers are built and located, and is already reshaping the U.S. energy infrastructure.
“Energy companies are increasingly pointing to AI-driven energy consumption as a major contributor to new demand. AES, a Virginia-based company, recently told investors that data centers could account for up to 7.5% of total U.S. electricity consumption by 2030, citing data from Boston Consulting Group, and the company is largely betting its growth on the ability to provide renewable energy to data centers in the coming years.
In the global news video below, Alex de Vries, an expert from Amsterdam, says that “increasing use of AI will lead to increased demand for energy and increased use of fossil fuels, which will ultimately promote climate change.”
In the last podcast, The Wall Street Journal He highlighted how “AI can help fight climate change, but it also adds to it.”
new world “Over the next several years, many regions in the United States and Canada may struggle to ensure reliable electricity supplies amid rising energy demand from the technology industry and the electrification of buildings and vehicles,” he recently wrote.
This story goes on to say: “More than 300 million people in the United States and Canada face the increasing possibility of electricity shortages starting in 2024 and continuing through 2028.
“In a recent report, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)—an international regulatory body that oversees North America’s power grid—projected that the majority of regions in the United States and Canada will not have enough electricity supply to reliably meet demand during severe weather. conditions.”
This CBC video explains the climate impact of AI:
last year, Axios “The American power grid is not ready for climate change,” he wrote:
Experts say human-caused climate change will put severe pressure on the US power grid in the coming decades, and widespread improvements are needed to boost its reliability and ability to meet growing electricity demand.
Why it matters: Officials have warned that the impacts of new extreme weather events on the grid could be felt throughout the summer if extreme heat waves drive up energy demand, testing the limits of energy infrastructure across the country.
At the same time, Axios He also highlighted recent attacks on the power grid:
Government documents show that attackers and saboteurs are targeting the US electrical grid more than at any time in the past decade.
Why it matters: Recent attacks on energy infrastructure across the country have led to widespread power outages and sparked calls from state and federal lawmakers for new security measures.
“Last year, there were 163 reported electrical incidents or disturbances caused by vandalism, physical assaults or “suspicious activity,” according to an Axios analysis of data from the Department of Energy.
the week He wrote this article titled “Is America Running Out of Electricity?”:
“Advances in new technologies seem to have created a new problem across the United States: crippling, looming energy shortages. The emergence of these technologies, such as green factories and data centers, has renewed fears that America may run out of electricity.” .
These concerns also come at a time when the United States’ aging power grid is in dire need of repair. Highly publicized incidents, such as the 2021 Texas power outage, which was partly blamed on cryptocurrency farming, have exposed just how vulnerable the country’s energy supply is, especially during emergencies. There have also been warnings from tech moguls such as Elon Musk, who stated that the United States is prepared to run out of electricity and adapters for artificial intelligence in 2025.
finally, Mediation This article brought many of these topics together: “Imminent Electricity Shortages and Other Dinner Table Artificial Intelligence Rumors.”
Solutions please
There are excellent reasons why Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, invested in nuclear energy.
In fact, “the AI industry is pushing toward a nuclear energy revival — in part to fuel itself.” NBC News books. Here’s an excerpt from that story:
“Technology companies and Silicon Valley billionaires have been pouring money into nuclear power for years, arguing that a sustainable energy source is crucial to the green transition. Now they have another incentive to promote it: artificial intelligence.
“While generative AI has grown at lightning speed, nuclear power projects are subject to strict regulations and typically advance at a snail’s pace. This raises questions about whether advances in nuclear power can cut emissions as quickly as energy-intensive AI.” And other rapidly growing technologies in addition to them.
“If you incorporate large language models, GPT-style models into search engines, it will cost five times as much as standard search environmentally,” said Sarah Myers West, managing director of the AI Now Institute, a research group focused on search. On the Social Impacts of AI At current growth rates, some new AI servers may soon consume more than 85 terawatt hours of electricity each year, researchers estimate, which is more than the annual energy consumption of some small countries.
To be fair, Sam Altman is also monetizing solar energy to help power AI as well, as we told in this story a company.:
“OpenAI CEO joins big-name venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Atomic in a $20 million seed funding round for solar company Exowatt. The Miami-based startup is developing a modular power platform to power data centers in an expected time In which artificial intelligence will significantly increase the energy needs of global data centers, AI advocates are looking for inexpensive and quickly scalable energy systems as the technology’s energy needs increase.
“Exowatt’s technology is a modular three-in-one power system about the size of a 40-foot shipping container. It uses what Hanan Parvizian, Exowatt CEO and co-founder, calls a ‘specially developed lens’ to collect solar energy in the form of heat and store it in Thermal battery The stored heat is then run through a motor to convert it into electricity and Exowatt expects its solution could reduce the cost of electricity to $0.01 per kilowatt-hour once it reaches the desired level.
Final thoughts
Power outages have already been a problem for the US power grid, especially in states like California and Texas.
Florida recently took steps to remove climate change considerations from Florida law, remove some hurdles to approving natural gas pipelines, and remove language that allows state officials to set renewable energy goals.
in Posting on social media platform On Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Ron DeSantis touted the law and two others he signed as “restoring rationality in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of extreme green zealots.”
The bottom line is that AI and climate change agendas have strong support across the United States and the world. There is no doubt that how to reconcile these two agendas in the coming years will be an ongoing challenge – and this will have huge consequences for society.
