Subj : Data center energy use set to spike six-fold in a decade
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Wed Mar 27 2024 10:45:05

Data center energy use set to spike six-fold in a decade

Date:
Wed, 27 Mar 2024 10:37:14 +0000

Description:
It also doesnt believe that the grid is fit for purpose, calling for bold 
action to reform constrained infrastructure.

FULL STORY
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Artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, electric cars and heat pumps 
are the biggest constraints on the United Kingdoms National Grid, according 
to its chief executive, John Pettigrew, who also called for bold action if 
the grid is to remain fit for purpose. 

In a speech shared on LinkedIn on March 26 (via BBC News ), Pettigrew warned 
that foundational technologies [...] will mean larger scale, energy-intensive 
computing infrastructure to cope with a six-fold increase in demand. 

To highlight the situations urgency, he highlighted that the last major 
reforms to the National Grid began in the 1950s, and that innovative thinking 
would be required to create a transmission network for tomorrows future. Our 
reliance on data center services 

While AI tool use is on the rise thanks to Microsofts $10 million investment 
in OpenAI catapulting tools like ChatGPT (nestled into Microsoft 365 Copilot) 
into the mainstream, most of us understand data centers to be at the center 
of cloud storage services offered by tech companies like Microsoft, Google, 
or Amazon, that are an easy means to store and backup our data. 

 Cloud backups are also a key driver of data center expansion, and, to be 
honest, TechRadar Pro isnt helping matters by using initiatives like World 
Backup Day to promote them. 

Pragmatically and depressingly, data centers might be here to stay, which is 
in itself a huge problem. BBC News reported in 2023 that data centers 
electricity use in the Republic of Ireland (a convenient European Union base 
for large, typically American tech companies) has risen 400% since 2015. 

Another study that BBC News covered in October 2023 found that, by 2027 
(decidedly less than a decade away, time fans), the AI industry could consume 
as much energy as a country the size of the Netherlands. 

Its true that AI and quantum computing are still all together very niche 
areas with much more justifiable applications in science than they do the 
meaningless spreadsheet youre staring at now, but I cant see this issue 
abating. Tech companies are desperate to sell new, shiny, useless things to 
their large consumer bases, and so are amazing at re-inventing solutions for 
problems theyve dragged back into existence. 

Big Tech expansion, through capitalistic rather than altruistic intent, will 
be the thing that forces the National Grid, if not the world, to reform 
infrastructure. As this story demonstrates, an accommodation of this new 
world by necessity is something that were already starting to see. More from 
TechRadar Pro Why data centers need to face-up to energy compliance AWS just 
bought a nuclear-powered data center Google reveals new $1bn UK data center 
as AI demand soars



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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/data-center-energy-use-set-to-spike-six-fold-in-
a-decade


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