What the datacenter boom means for America's environment and electricity bills

"The headlong rush to build huge new datacenters, in order to support the growth of AI, is raising a number of concerns in the US around the impact upon the climate crisis, water use and electricity bills. It's also set to reshape American politics in potentially unusual ways. Companies such as Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Amazon and Meta are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into new datacenters that will form the backbone to the surging use of AI by businesses and the public."

"This frenzy of building means that datacenters could account for more than 14% of the US's total power demand by 2030, triple the amount it does now. Utilities predict that the same volume of electricity it would take to power six cities will be required just to keep data centers online by this time. More, after this week's most important reads."

"Meeting this demand will require considerably more electricity than is currently produced in the United States, a recent report by McKinsey acknowledged of the new thirst for datacenters. This spike in electricity needs is unprecedented. So where will this new power come from? Under Donald Trump's vision, it will be from fossil fuels, not the wind turbines and solar panels the president disparages as garbage and unwanted in the US."

Rapid construction of massive datacenters to support AI is increasing demand for electricity and water, raising climate, water-use and consumer bill concerns. Major technology firms are investing hundreds of billions of dollars to create infrastructure that will underpin widespread AI services. Projections indicate datacenters could consume more than 14% of US electricity by 2030, roughly triple current levels and equivalent to powering six cities. Meeting that demand will require substantially more generation than currently produced. Policy shifts favoring fossil fuels and reduced environmental regulation are boosting coal forecasts despite continued clean-energy growth and possible efficiency gains.

Read at www.theguardian.com