-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Artificial Intelligence’s rapid boom is causing a surge in demand for electricity that could pose challenges for the grid, and the companies behind the tech. From simple ChatGPT queries — which themselves can consume as much electricity as a 60-watt incandescent bulb does in 10 minutes — to more complex image and video creations, to fast-growing enterprise implementation and hardware integration, the AI boom is spiking demand for power on an already-strained grid. As Bloomberg notes, data centers already consumed more power than entire nations like Italy and Taiwan in 2023, and their energy demand has surged more than seven-fold since 2008, even as chips become more energy-efficient.
AI’s power needs will only get worse, per a Boston Consulting Group report, which pinned current power consumption by data centers at 2.5%, and forecasted up to a three-fold rise to 7.5% by 2030.
This hike in demand may not be fillable by existing generation capacity, and certainly not by renewable sources. In Texas, for example, where devastating blackouts during a winter storm killed more than 240 people in 2021, a substantial rise in energy demand could mean less reliable energy for everyone. “Crypto miners and data centers will be responsible for over 50% of the added growth [to power demand].
We need to take a close look at those two industries,” Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick said in a Jun 12 post to X. “We want data centers, but it c.
