Data Centers Are Eating the US Grid Alive

Three Mile Island nuclear power site

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It’s not only the US. Ireland’s data centres have already exceeded 20% of the nation’s annual electricity consumption. Intermittent weather-dependent renewables can’t solve this, almost by definition. Microsoft is taking over the Three Mile Island nuclear power site. Climate policy versus the never-ending march of progress – what wins? The data centre AI boom is already here.
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The future of data centers is about to make a huge draw on the power grid, says OilPrice.com.

According to a DOE-backed report from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, U.S. data center energy use could nearly triple by 2028, eating up as much as 12% of the country’s electricity.

Why? Blame AI and its insatiable hunger for powerful chips and energy-guzzling cooling systems.

Currently, data centers are responsible for a modest 4% of U.S. power demand. But with AI servers becoming the star of the show, the power draw has already doubled since 2017. The GPU chips that are needed to run complex machine learning algorithms are pushing the limits of what the grid can handle.

And then there is the heat they generate, causing cooling systems to work overtime.

The report warns that this growth could strain electrical grids, spike energy prices, and raise a few eyebrows about the climate impact. Researchers are calling for better transparency around energy use and efficiency improvements, but Big Tech isn’t exactly eager to spill the tea on their proprietary power habits.

And don’t count on renewables to ride to the rescue just yet. A study last month highlighted that scaling up solar and wind power isn’t happening fast enough to keep up with this demand surge. Plus, when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow, the grid still needs fossil fuels to back it up.

Full article here.
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Image: Three Mile Island nuclear power site