AI is causing electricity demand to explode – at the expense of the energy transition

The boom in artificial intelligence is having a massive impact on the demand for electricity. But can solar and wind energy cover them? And what impact does AI’s enormous electricity requirements have on the energy transition?

ChatGPT is estimated to answer around 200 million queries every day. This means that the AI ​​software uses around half a million kilowatt hours of energy every day New Yorker reported.

To put this into perspective, he draws New Yorker the consumption of an average US household. This amounts to around 29 kilowatt hours per day.

But how should this enormous energy requirement of ChatGPT and Co. be served? Managers from the tech industry are primarily focusing on fossil energies.

Will AI's electricity requirements stop the energy transition?

Tech executives discussed the question of the energy requirements of artificial intelligence at S&P Global's CERAWeek conference Wall Street Journal reported.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates described the energy requirements of AI as breathtaking at the conference. Tech executives are certain that the huge increase in energy demand cannot be met from clean sources.

Renewable energy sources are too uncertain for this, as wind and solar energy, for example, are subject to large fluctuations.

Is the tech industry now relying more on natural gas?

Many tech executives would therefore see natural gas as a solution to their problem. “Technology is not going to wait seven to 10 years to build this infrastructure. So all that’s left is natural gas,” Toby Rice, CEO of natural gas producer EQT, told the WSJ.

He heard two questions repeatedly at the conference: “How fast can you move? How much gas can we get?”

But what impact will this have on the energy transition? However, Robert Blue, CEO of Dominion Energy, does not see the current challenges as an obstacle to the transition to clean energy.

“We will be net zero by 2050. We still firmly believe in that,” he explains in an interview with WSJ. Nevertheless, his company will build at least one new natural gas plant to meet the ever-growing demand from data centers.

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