Massive new centers consume unbelievable share of country's electricity, sparking concerns: 'It's kind of an outrageous number'
Generative AI, like the famous ChatGPT, takes a massive amount of computing power to run. That means a lot of energy being drawn from the grid wherever the data center is located. Many of these data centers are located in Ireland — and they're taking an unbelievable share of the country's electricity, AP News reported.
Data centers for major tech companies — including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok — are found in Dublin and across the country of Ireland. They consume more power than all of the urban homes in the country combined, a full 21% of the country's electricity in 2023.
Out of the countries that have reported their energy burdens for computing to the International Energy Agency, Ireland's burden is the highest.
This power has to come from somewhere, and officials are worried the demand could outpace the supply.
Ireland is a "microcosm of what many countries could be facing over the next decade, particularly with the growth of AI," energy researcher Paul Deane from the University College Cork told AP News.
The high demand for energy is having an impact on residents.
"It's kind of an outrageous number of data centers," said Dublin activist Darragh Adelaide, per AP News. "People have started to make the connection between the amount of electricity they're using and electricity prices going up."
And higher bills aren't the only price Ireland is paying. Much of its energy supply comes from dirty fuel sources like oil and coal. Burning these fuels pollutes the air, which is unhealthy for residents and can lead to premature deaths. Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency has cited nitrogen oxide pollution from data centers' gas or diesel turbines as a particular concern in Dublin.
Dirty energy also releases heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, contributing to the overheating of the planet.
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Dublin is so vulnerable to rolling blackouts at this point that the grid operator has banned new data centers in the area until at least 2028, per AP News. The government has also encouraged new data centers to choose sites away from the city and find ways to generate their own power.
Ireland is also hard at work on supplying more clean energy from wind farms and other sources.
Meanwhile, scientists are looking for ways to reduce the power needed by AI data centers.
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