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Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Next Thing To Ruin The UK's Water Supply Isn't What You Think
Recently, the Environment Agency (EA) warned that unless our water is 'carefully managed, England will run out of this precious resource at the times we most need it.' But our water demands are only rising, they add, partly due to population growth but also thanks to 'the servicing of new technologies, such as the cooling of data centres powering AI.' Speaking to The Guardian, an EA source revealed that the AI boom means the body cannot accurately predict future water consumption, making it hard to plan for the future (per the publication, data centres don't have to report how much water they use to cool servers). shared that the water needed to keep data centres cool is as much as 360,000L in large centres. A study suggests AI-specific water demands could reach 6.6 billion cubic metres by 2027, 'which is more than the total annual water withdrawal of 4-6 Denmark or half of the United Kingdom.' The news comes after our warmest spring on record and the driest in over 50 years. The EA warned that if nothing changes, we could be short of 5 billion litres a day by 2055 in the UK. This is not only due to AI use. But some think the boom will have an outsized impact on the risk and make it harder to plan for emergencies. Speaking to HuffPost UK, Jonathan Niesel, AI Advisor for Greenpeace, said: 'AI's environmental footprint goes beyond energy. Cooling data centres require large quantities of water – according to our projections, data centres worldwide consumed 175 billion litres of water in 2023. 'Consumption is forecast to more than triple by 2030, with this trend mainly driven by AI-specific data centres,' he continued, pointing to a report compiled for Greenpeace by the Öko-Institut. 'As extended droughts are becoming more frequent, AI developers must take responsibility for their supply chains, minimise their water consumption and ensure that local communities do not suffer shortages as a consequence of their thirst.' This year, Prime Minister Kier Starmer and Labour announced plans to 'unleash' more AI into the private sector, fast-tracking the planning of 'thirsty' data centres in 'growth zones' across the UK. The EA also said that water companies should halve the amount of water lost through leaks. It wants to increase the number of reservoirs in the UK, build desalination plants (which make seawater drinkable), and get water from the wettest parts of the UK to the driest. EA chairman, Alan Lovell, said: 'The nation's water resources are under huge and steadily increasing pressure. This deficit threatens not only the water from your tap but also economic growth and food production. 'Taking water unsustainably from the environment will have a disastrous impact on our rivers and wildlife. 'We need to tackle these challenges head-on and strengthen work on coordinated action to preserve this precious resource and our current way of life.' Let's Settle It: Is Faux Leather Better Or Worse For The Environment? The Sewage Crisis Isn't Just A Threat To Our Environment, It's Impacting Our Mental Health Too What Happens If… We Actually Exceed 1.5°C In Global Warming?
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Malaysia to build 50% more gas-fired power capacity to meet data centre demand, official says
KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 (Reuters) - Malaysia is expected to add 6-8 gigawatts of gas-fired power by 2030 to address growing electricity consumption driven by demand from data centres, an industry official said. The country is expected to see the fastest surge in data centre power demand in southeast Asia, with its share of electricity consumed by data centres in the region to triple to 21% by 2027 from 7% in 2022, a joint report in May by Bain & Co with others including Google and Temasek showed. Rising gas demand could see Malaysia, the fifth-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), start importing the super-chilled fuel in four to five years, the head of state energy firm Petronas told the Energy Asia conference this week. Megat Jalaluddin, CEO of state utility Tenaga Nasional Berhad ( opens new tab, said he expects Malaysia to add 6-8 gigawatts of gas-fired power by building new plants and extending the life of existing ones as it looks to cut dependence on coal. That represents a 40-54% increase from the current 15 GW of gas-fired capacity. Total power consumption in Malaysia is on track to increase 30% by 2030, and Malaysia has already invited industry proposals for supply, he said. "We want to phase out coal responsibly. Then the next best option that can basically take the place of coal is gas," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the Energy Asia event. Malaysia could also add as much as 10 GW of renewable capacity by 2030, more than doubling the 9 GW currently, as data centres push for access to cleaner sources of power, he said. In the last two years, Malaysia has turned to its coal-fired power plants to address surging demand which grew at the fastest pace in 14 years in 2024, according to energy think-tank Ember. Data centres are expected to require 19.5 GW of power generation capacity by 2035, accounting for 52% of Peninsular Malaysia's electricity use, from about 2% now, Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof told Reuters. Technology giants including Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet's Google and ByteDance have announced billions of dollars in investments in Malaysia since the beginning of last year, powering an infrastructure boom. Malaysia's southern state of Johor has emerged as Southeast Asia's hottest data centre hub due to its proximity to Singapore, relatively cheap land and power and faster approvals, real estate consultancy Knight Frank said in a report.
BreakingNews.ie
2 days ago
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
What the paper says: Wednesday's front pages
Wednesday's front pages focus on a range of stories from data centres being allowed to build private electricity plants to Cork being on track for eight new train stations. The Irish Times report t he Government is to make it easier for large energy users such as data centres to power themselves independently under a new policy to be published next month. The Irish Examiner reports t he final route for one of Ireland's largest ever road projects — the 80km Cork to Limerick motorway — is to be unveiled on Monday. Advertisement The Echo report that the cost of housing is causing nurses coming from overseas to leave when their contract is up. Dark times... — The Irish Daily Mail (@irishdailymail) June 18, 2025 Good morning readers. Here is the front page of today's Belfast Telegraph. Stay with us for all your breaking news. — Belfast Telegraph (@BelTel) June 18, 2025
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Will rent reform hitting holiday lets irk Coalition's own Ministers?
Last month, the secretary general at the Department of Environment, Climate and Energy stepped in at the last minute for her Minister, Darragh O'Brien, at a clean energy event. She told the event that data centres were eating up all of our energy supply. With this one throwaway comment, Oonagh Buckley attracted more headlines and political attention than most senior civil servants would be comfortable with. 'We're having to even think about prioritising what is the social need of the demand – is it housing or is it AI?' she asked. 'We're going to have to think much more about managing demand.' READ MORE As existential questions about our infrastructure continue to plague the Government, Jack Horgan-Jones is reporting in our lead story today that data centres would be able to use 'private wires' to power themselves independently from the ESB power grid. Big energy users would be able to build and operate electricity infrastructure, including between power sources and data centres, under a policy that will be published next month. It comes after Sean O'Driscoll, head of the ESRI and a member of the Government's new infrastructure tax force, warned on Tuesday that Ireland cannot expect to attract companies 'like Apple, Microsoft, Google into Ireland and say to them: 'we'd like some of your jobs, but we're not going to provide you with data centres.' We can provide them with data centres if we invest in our infrastructure,' he said. On the subject of infrastructure, Michael McDowell also has an interesting column today on how to reform our planning system and neuter the constant issue of judicial reviews being taken against planning decisions. RPZs The Government promised us that it wasn't afraid to take unpopular decisions on housing. It probably didn't anticipate them being unpopular with their own ministers, though. We are reporting this morning that thousands of short-term holiday lettings on the west coast and elsewhere will require planning permission as a result of emergency laws extending Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) nationwide by the end of this week. Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and, more importantly, Kerry TD, Michael Healy-Rae tells The Irish Times that he is 'extremely concerned' about the impact this policy would have on his constituency. In advance of the law changing, Killarney is the only part of Kerry currently covered by RPZs. This means that the entire Kerry coastline from Listowel down to Kenmare is dotted with Airbnb style lettings, which may be crucial to rural tourism, which will all now be forced to apply for planning permission. Asked if he wished to comment, Mr Healy-Rae did in his own inimitable style: 'Isn't it a major concern of mine?' This issue likely won't escape the notice of senior Government ministers hailing from some of Ireland's most bucolic constituencies, including Kerrywoman Norma Foley, who are almost certain to face ferocious representations from unhappy Airbnb hosts on this issue. Trouble could also be brewing between two ministerial James' on the impact RPZ reforms will have on students. At a press conference yesterday, Minister for Housing James Browne told reporters that there will be no special exemption for students under new RPZ legislation. This was despite an appeal for such an exemption coming from Minster for Further and Higher Education James Lawless. The pair had been due to meet yesterday, but that has been deferred to next week. Immigration Elsewhere in the paper, Conor Gallagher and Martin Wall are reporting on the decision agreed at Cabinet yesterday to buy the Citywest Hote l and make it a permanent processing centre for International Protection Applicants. As the annual bill for using private providers to accommodate people who come to Ireland seeking asylum has breached €1 billion a year, Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan is under pressure to find ways to provider 14,000 State-owned beds for asylum seekers by 2028. Buying Citywest will cost the State €148.2 million, but Mr O'Callaghan has predicted that the Government 'will have got our money back in terms of the investment' after four years. The company that runs the hotel received more than €18 million between January and March of this year, for accommodating both international protection applicants and Ukrainian refugees. And finally, Joe Brennan is reporting in Business on the Government moving yesterday to lift the State's remaining €500,000 executive pay cap at bailed-out banks after selling its remaining shares in AIB. Best Reads With the inauspicious image of a fox who drowned in the fountain outside Government buildings yesterday, Miriam Lord writes about the Groundhog Day style stagnant exchanges between Opposition and Government on the perma-crisis of housing While writing about the Irish presidency, the job that nobody seems to want, Kathy Sheridan offers up a rollicking read on the delirious days of the 2011 election. And Sally Hayden is reporting from Beirut on the 'sense of panic and deepening fears of a wider conflict' in the Middle East, with aerial attacks and missiles being fired between Israel and Iran Playbook The Dáil schedule today is being dominated by emergency legislation to extend RPZs to the entire country. After a housing rally outside Leinster House last night, Labour published its own emergency amendments to the legislation which it says would introduce a two year rent freeze and fine landlords up to €100,000 for breaking the law. The Dáil schedule looks like this: 09.00 Topical Issues 10.00 Private Members' Business is a Motion from the Independent and Parties Technical Group on public transport experiences 12.00 Leaders' Questions 12.34 Other Members' Questions 12.42 Questions on policy or legislation 13.12 Motions without debate, which is Finance (Local Property Tax and Other Provisions) (Amendment) Bill 2025 – Financial Resolution. 14.13 Government business, which is devoted to getting through second stage, committee stage and remaining stages of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2025, the new RPZ reforms 19.47 Government business then moves to committee stage of the Mental Health Bill 2024 22.17 Deferred division on the: Criminal Law (Prohibition of the Disclosure of Counselling Records) Bill 2025, Ruth Coppinger's bill to ban the use of counselling notes in rape trials The Seanad schedule looks like this: 10.30 Commencement matters 11.30 Order of Business 14.00 Government business, first slot of which is for Statements on Food Promotion and New Markets 15.30 Followed by another Government business slot, for Statements on the Farrelly Commission Report 17.00 Private Members' Business, which is a motion on enterprise matters and business supports for SME's It's a busy day for Committees, with all of the following taking place on the Leinster House campus today: the HSE are appearing before the disability matters committee, Hiqa and the minister for older people are appearing before the health committee to answer questions on nursing homes, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign will be talking to politicians about the Israeli Bond Programme and the Committee on Social Protection will hear from the ESRI, which is proposing a new Child Benefit tier to challenge child poverty. This comes after the Taoiseach signalled this week that such a measure is on the table for Budget 2026. You can read the full committee schedule here .
Tahawul Tech
3 days ago
- Business
- Tahawul Tech
digital products Archives
"@amazon's $20 billion investment in data centres in Australia will set us up for the future, boosting our economy and productivity". Learn more about these plans below. #Amazon #Australia #tahawultech
