Tag: ai

AI’s insatiable need for power is driven by the complexity and scale of its computational requirements.

AI models are often trained and deployed in data centres, which are massive facilities housing thousands of servers. These servers consume a substantial amount of energy, equivalent to that of 30,000 homes.

AI inference, the process of answering user queries, relies heavily on Graphics Processing Units (“GPUs”). Each inference requires GPU processing power, which uses energy. This demand is expected to increase as more AI models are developed and deployed.

Larger AI models, such as those used in language processing and computer vision, require more computational resources and, consequently, more energy. These models have billions of parameters and rely on massive data sets, further straining energy demands.  And as AI adoption grows, so does the need for more powerful infrastructure to support it.

In an own goal for those eager to implement Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals – such as those who eagerly signed the ‘Pact for the Future’, ‘Global Digital Compact’ and ‘Pact for Future Generations’ at the UN Summit of the Future on Sunday – the energy consumption of AI systems contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, so they say, and strains global grids. 

In Bloomberg’s podcast below (audio only) published on Tuesday, host David Gura and Bloomberg reporter Josh Saul discuss just what the insatiable AI data centre power needs mean for local communities, energy prices and efforts to switch to “renewables” to combat climate change.

“The big tech companies have set ambitious impressive clean energy goals … almost to a company [they] have said, ‘By 2030 we’re going to be 100% clean energy for our data centres’. But it’s a difficult thing to do because data centres are on all the time, 100% of the time, so to match that to clean energy is hard,” Saul said.

We guess matching large energy requirements 100% of the time is hard to do with “renewable” energy, i.e. wind and solar, because it is unreliable and intermittent.

However, the solution is simple; label nuclear energy as “green” energy. Gura posed the question: “Do they, the tech companies, believe that kind of traditional green energy, do they think that green energy is going to be enough to make up the difference that they need?”

Saul responded, “Well everybody loves nuclear I mean nuclear has gotten so hot, like Joe Rogan talking about nuclear.”

Gura chipped in, “Bill Gates is talking about it now.”

“Everybody. Yeah, everyone’s very excited about nuclear,” Saul said.

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Constellation Energy plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant and will sell the power to Microsoft, demonstrating the immense energy needs of the tech sector as they build out data centers to support artificial intelligence.

Constellation expects the Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island near Middletown, Pennsylvania, to come back online in 2028, subject to approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the company announced Friday. Constellation also plans to apply to extend the plant’s operations to at least 2054.

Constellation stock jumped about 15% in morning trading. Its shares have more than doubled year to date.

Microsoft will purchase electricity from the plant in a 20-year agreement to match the energy its data centers consume with carbon-free power. Constellation described the agreement with Microsoft as the largest power purchase agreement that the nuclear plant operator has ever signed.

“The decision here is the most powerful symbol of the rebirth of nuclear power as a clean and reliable energy resource,” Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez told investors on a call Friday morning.

Unit 1 ceased operations in 2019 as nuclear power struggled to compete economically with cheap natural gas and renewables. It is separate from the reactor that partially melted down in 1979 in the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history.

Constellation will rename the plant the Crane Clean Energy Center. The facility is named after Chris Crane, who was CEO of Constellation’s former parent company and died in April.

Constellation will invest $1.6 billion in restarting the plant through 2028, including on nuclear fuel, Chief Financial Officer Dan Eggers told investors during the call.

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