Data Centers Are Sending Global Electricity Demand Soaring

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Posted on 12/06/2024 7:06:49 PM PST by SeekAndFind

• The rapid growth of data centers to support AI is significantly increasing global electricity demand.

• This surge in demand threatens to outpace the development of renewable energy sources.

• International regulations are needed to ensure tech companies use clean energy and minimize their impact on climate goals.

The global electricity demand is expected to grow exponentially in the coming decades, largely due to an increased demand from tech companies for new data centers to support the rollout of high-energy-consuming advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI). As governments worldwide introduce new climate policies and pump billions into alternative energy sources and clean tech, these efforts may be quashed by the increased electricity demand from data centers unless greater international regulatory action is taken to ensure that tech companies invest in clean energy sources and do not use fossil fuels for power.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) released a report in October entitled “What the data centre and AI boom could mean for the energy sector”. It showed that with investment in new data centers surging over the past two years, particularly in the U.S., the electricity demand is increasing rapidly – a trend that is set to continue.

The report states that in the U.S., annual investment in data center construction has doubled in the past two years alone. China and the European Union are also seeing investment in data centers increase rapidly. In 2023, the overall capital investment by tech leaders Google, Microsoft, and Amazon was greater than that of the U.S. oil and gas industry, at approximately 0.5 percent of the U.S. GDP.

The tech sector expects to deploy AI technologies more widely in the coming decades as the technology is improved and becomes more ingrained in everyday life.

(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...

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1 posted on 12/06/2024 7:06:49 PM PST by SeekAndFind

To: SeekAndFind

2 posted on 12/06/2024 7:08:49 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)

To: SeekAndFind

3 posted on 12/06/2024 7:11:32 PM PST by eyedigress (Trump is my President!)

To: eyedigress

4 posted on 12/06/2024 7:12:12 PM PST by eyedigress (Trump is my President!)

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