Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Here’s how AI data centers affect the electrical grid
A data center is a facility that houses IT infrastructure, such as
servers, storage, and networking gear, to store, process, and distribute data
and applications. Data centers are essential for cloud computing, AI, and the
internet. They require massive amounts of both electricity to power servers and
cool them. IT giants are now rushing to build more and larger data centers to meet
the increasing need for immense computational power to train and run AI models.
Accordingly, the demand for electricity is skyrocketing, which has set severe
strains on the electricity market in the USA. In some areas around or near data
centers, the electricity costs have doubled in recent years. To meet the
increasing need for electricity, more fossil fuels are burned, and nuclear
power is activated. In addition, data centers use a substantial amount of water
for their cooling systems to absorb heat from equipment. This is going to add
another strain on already scarce water resources in the USA. It seems that AI
is an energy guzzler that places immense demands on power grids. And this problem
isn’t limited to the USA.
Read the article and learn about the inconvenient truth of AI.
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