A Single AI Data Center Could Soon Consume Twice the Electricity of Pittsburgh

The rapid growth of AI and cloud computing is leading to a surge in the power consumption of data centers, with individual campuses potentially using far more electricity than some U.S. cities and states.

CNBC reports that as AI and cloud computing continue to transform the global economy, the electricity consumption of data centers housing the servers that power these technologies has exploded over the past decade. Now, data centers are growing so large that finding sufficient power to drive them and suitable land to accommodate them is becoming increasingly challenging, according to companies developing these facilities.

Data center developers warn that individual campuses could soon consume more than a gigawatt of power, which is roughly twice the residential electricity consumption of Pittsburgh last year. To put this into perspective, a data center campus with a peak demand of one gigawatt is equivalent to the average annual consumption of approximately 700,000 homes or a city of around 1.8 million people.

The U.S. is expected to see a growing number of data center campuses requiring 500 megawatts or more in the 2030s through mid-2040s. Facilities of this size are comparable to the power consumption of about 350,000 homes.

As land and power become more limited, data centers are expanding into new markets outside the established global hub in northern Virginia. Companies like Tract are assembling thousands of acres of land across the U.S. for data center development, with large holdings in Arizona and Nevada.

Texas has also become an attractive market due to its less burdensome regulatory environment and abundant energy resources. Lancium, a Houston-based company, has five data center campuses in various stages of development in the state, with plans to scale them up to between three and five gigawatts.

However, the rapid growth of data centers raises concerns about their impact on local communities and the environment. Developers must ensure that electricity costs in neighboring areas do not rise as a consequence and that grid reliability is maintained. Pairing these facilities with new power generation is crucial to mitigate any negative effects.

While developers prefer carbon-free renewable energy, solar and wind alone are currently unable to meet the demand due to their reliance on changing weather conditions. In the short term, natural gas will likely fuel much of the power required by data centers, providing the reliability these facilities need. However, this reliance on gas may temporarily disrupt technology companies’ emissions targets.

Breitbart News previously reported that former Google CEO Eric Schmidt believes the environmental goals many Silicon Valley giants espouse have always been unrealistic:

When pressed by presenters on whether it is possible to meet AI energy needs without disregarding conservation goals, Schmidt expressed his doubts about the feasibility of achieving the current climate targets.

“We’re not going to hit the climate goals anyway because we’re not organized to do it,” he said. Instead, Schmidt suggested that we should “bet on AI solving the problem” rather than “constraining it and having the problem.”

AI players are also turning to nuclear to fuel their data center ambitions. Microsoft is commissioning the reopening of the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear facility to fuel its insatiable AI ambitions.