Data centers are an essential feature of the AI boom. The massive centers, which consume a lot of water and require a lot of energy, are sources of controversy. Without them, though, the US would not be leading the world in AI technology.
Data centers demand a lot of electricity. In 2023, they comprised about 4.4% of all US electricity demands, according to a report published by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. That report suggests that demand is set to increase between 13-28% in the next few years.
This demand for electricity is also powered by electric vehicles, manufacturing, and “electrification of industry and buildings,” according to the report.
This increased electrification of society, combined with the increased demand for electricity from data centers, poses a problem for America’s aging power grids. “Things like rolling blackouts in Texas and California, even a couple of years ago before data centers were even consuming all that much, kind of show us that there’s more fundamental problems to be fixed,” said Taylor Black, director of AI & Venture Ecosystems at Microsoft.
On The Drew Mariani Show, Black told Drew that the data center demand for energy will not always look “up and to the right” on a graph. Rather, “all of the companies who are producing these data centers have just as much interest in making them as incredibly efficient as possible,” he said.
Water consumption is also a concern for local residents who live near a data center. In 2023, one report suggested 30% of an Oregon town’s water was attributable to Google’s data centers. Black shared with Drew that there is a lot of misinformation about water usage. Much of the water is used for cooling down the data center equipment. “Really the vast majority of this water is being used in closed systems,” he said. Recently, the CEO of Microsoft said that the closed-loop water systems use as much water in a year as a “single restaurant.”
Even the Holy Father is considering utility demands. In his new encyclical, the Holy Father called for “sustainable technological solutions that reduce environmental impact and help protect our common home.”