"AI’s Dual Role Driving and Derailing Decarbonization"

" AI's Dual Role Driving and Derailing Decarbonization \r\nThe global energy demand increase being driven by widespread AI integration is creating a complex problem for power grids worldwide. The gap between current energy production capacity and projected need from data centers is so vast that experts are now saying that the issue won\u2019t be solved within our lifetime, and is therefore an issue that will fall on future generations to untangle.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe gap between what AI is demanding and what we have everywhere in the world on the grid in terms of generation and transmission is huge and will not be closed in our lifetime,\u201d Dave Stangis, sustainability strategy leader at Apollo Global Management Inc., recently told Bloomberg. \u201cSo what is happening around the world, there\u2019s no doubt about it, is what you might call energy addition,\u201d Stangis said. \u201cThe world is scrambling to add every source of power.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe scramble to ramp up power generation capacity to support the proliferation of energy-hungry data centers has driven investment in clean and innovative energy alternatives, but it has also caused a resurgence in fossil fuel investment, and has resurrected fossil fuel-powered plants that were scheduled to be shuttered, and\u00a0 fast-tracked others .\r\n\r\nInvestors are now heartily embracing an all-of-the-above approach to energy production at an unprecedented level, with renewed interest in previously fringe technologies like\u00a0 geothermal ,\u00a0 tidal energy ,\u00a0 and\u00a0 nuclear fusion , as well as a resurrection of the traditional nuclear sector.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt about it: the external world around investing in the transition has changed,\u201d Stangis told Bloomberg. \u201cFrom a policy perspective, certain technologies are more in favor today than they were a couple years ago, and others are less. But we still see the tens of trillions of dollars of opportunity \u2013 that hasn\u2019t changed, and it\u2019s only growing.\u201d\r\n\r\nBut even with the rush to add increasing energy and grid capacity to support the runaway AI boom, there is cause for serious concern as to whether energy grids will be able to handle the ballooning demand that is rapidly coming down the pike. Countries including\u00a0 Ireland , Saudi Arabia and Malaysia are already facing serious challenges as the energy needs of their already-planned data centers far outstrip their planned energy additions. In the United States, a recent\u00a0 scientific study \u00a0found that Americans can expect their energy costs to go up by as much as 70 percent if the government does not invest billions of dollars in generation and transmission capacity over the next few years.\r\n\r\nIndeed, consumers around the world are\u00a0 already bearing the financial burden \u00a0of ubiquitous AI integration, and it\u2019s beginning to cause a\u00a0 bipartisan groundswell of pushback . What\u2019s more, consumers have no control over Big Tech\u2019s full-steam-ahead approach to AI integration, and may not even be benefitting from it.\r\n\r\n\"We are witnessing a massive transfer of wealth from residential utility customers to large corporations\u2014data centers and large utilities and their corporate parents, which profit from building additional energy infrastructure,\" Maryland People's Counsel David Lapp was quoted by Business Insider earlier this year. \"Utility regulation is failing to protect residential customers, contributing to an energy affordability crisis.\u201d\r\n\r\nHowever, while artificial intelligence is posing major threats to global power supplies and increasing rates of energy poverty,\u00a0 it could also hold the solutions to those same problems . Some experts believe that fears over data centers\u2019 increasing energy consumption are overblown. As AI becomes more advanced, increased automation across sectors is expected to make nearly everything we do more efficient, to the degree that large language models are a net energy-saver. Some of the most energy-inefficient sectors, like materials value chains and biotechnology, will be transformed by AI models that can find \u2018needle-in-a-haystack\u2019 efficiency solutions that scientists alone cannot."

"AI’s Dual Role Driving and Derailing Decarbonization"

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