Data centres may soon burn as much extra gas as California uses daily

Reading Time: 1 minute

Environment

In support of their AI ambitions, tech companies are rapidly expanding US data centres, and this growth is on track to significantly increase US gas demand by 2030

By Jeremy Hsu

Facebook / Meta

Twitter / X icon

Linkedin

Reddit

Email

A power substation near a data centre in Virginia

Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Silicon Valley’s scramble to build more data centres could boost US demand for natural gas by the equivalent of another New York State or California within a decade, with much of this expansion due to the energy cost of training and using artificial intelligence.

“If the world wants all [AI] workloads to be powered only by sustainable power in 2030 from currently available technologies, it will have to temper its AI initiative,” Aneesh Prabhu and his colleagues at S&P Global, a financial information and…

Unlock this article

No commitment, cancel anytime*

Offer ends 15 December 2024.

*Cancel anytime within 14 days of payment to receive a refund on
unserved issues.

Inclusive of applicable taxes (VAT)

or

Existing subscribers

Sign in to your account

More from New Scientist

Explore the latest news, articles and features

Article Source




Information contained on this page is provided by an independent third-party content provider. This website makes no warranties or representations in connection therewith. If you are affiliated with this page and would like it removed please contact editor @cedarcity.business

Skip to content