<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/green-energy-transition-at-risk-from-unrestricted-data-centre-development/>
"A new report by the Öko-Institut, commissioned by Greenpeace, shows that
unregulated data centre development could serve as a boost for fossil fuels and
limit renewable energy development, and that strict new guidelines are required
to ensure artificial intelligence doesn’t threaten climate goals.
The study projects the power consumption of data centres servicing the needs of
various applications of AI will be 11 times higher in 2030 than in 2023, with a
subsequent increase in emissions from 29 MTCO2-e in 2023 to 166 MTCO2-e in 2030
(a calculation that factors in an increasing share of renewables).
Other environmental burdens include the water required for cooling, which will
almost quadruple to 664 billion litres, and the additional electronic waste
generated by the expansion of data centres and AI capacity, which will amount
to up to 5 million tonnes, over the same period. In addition, 920 kilotonnes of
steel and around one hundred kilotonnes of critical raw materials will be
required.
While major data centre operators such as Amazon, Meta and Google have played a
central role in signing power purchase agreements with many renewable energy
facilities, incentivising their growth, the vast power consumption of these
companies generally far exceeds deals done with clean power providers,
resulting in a net addition of greenhouse gases thanks to their new demand.
The result, says Jens Gröger, Research Coordinator for Sustainable Digital
Infrastructures at Oeko-Institut, is that ‘in the years ahead, data centres
will continue to rely on fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal – with
correspondingly high environmental costs.’ The major technology companies are
also investing in nuclear power plants and small modular reactors (SMRs)."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
