Artificial intelligence and energy consumption. A really stupid decision
The rise of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence models in large languages requires huge amounts of computing power…
Major artificial intelligence companies are realizing that their idea of reducing net CO2 emissions to zero is a truly foolish assumption.
As the Wall Street Journal’s Jennifer Hiller and Scott Patterson have written, modern data centers that supply the computing power needed for artificial intelligence are sparking tech companies that like to flaunt their commitment to the climate, consumers angry about rising electricity prices, and regulators who control investment in the power grid by trying to make it “greener.”
Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon, three of the largest operators of artificial intelligence data centers, have already slammed Georgia Power’s proposal to use natural gas instead of planned renewable energy.
For example, new data centers in Northern Virginia will consume an identical amount of energy as a city like Seattle.
The area, dubbed “Data Center Alley,” is home to about 150 buildings that carry about 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic through a network of crisscrossing power lines.
Amazon Web Services, Amazon.com’s cloud computing company, has already invested $52 billion in the region and plans to invest an additional $35 billion by 2040.
Amazon has reportedly commissioned 19 wind turbines in Virginia.
But the company has also inked a $650 million deal to buy a data center in Pennsylvania powered by a 2.5-gigawatt nuclear power plant.
Dominion Energy, which powers most of Virginia’s data centers, predicts that the energy needed to run them will quadruple over the next 15 years, accounting for 40 percent of the company’s statewide demand.
Dominion CEO Robert Blue said :
“We will continue to be a major producer of renewable energy.
We are building a big offshore wind farm.
We are building a lot of solar.
We are building a lot of storage…
But we also recognize that more natural gas is going to be needed to keep the lights on”.
The increased demand for electricity is also delaying the retirement of some coal-fired power plants.
Duke Energy has told Carolina regulators that it will need three new gas-fired plants or keep existing ones open longer than planned.
But the cost of increased energy demand will fall on residential and commercial customers.
Dominion predicts that grid investments and new projects will raise the average bill for Virginia customers from about $133 a month to $174 in 15 years.
