Energy Secretary Addresses Concerns Over Growing Electricity Demand from AI

US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has assured that the United States will be able to meet the growing demand for electricity that will be needed to power the growing number of data centers that are driving the development of artificial intelligence in the technology sector.

“The explosive growth of AI raises this big question: Will we have enough energy to power AI?” Granholm told reporters Friday during a briefing. “We definitely say yes, yes.”

After a long period of relatively flat electricity demand, the U.S. is now experiencing an increase in electricity demand that the Department of Energy projects will double electricity demand by mid-century. Increases in manufacturing and the electrification of more cars and household appliances are driving demand, but the rapid growth of data centers to train and run AI systems has become a major area of ​​demand.

The International Energy Agency predicts that globally, data center energy demand could consume up to 3 percent of total global electricity production by 2026. In the U.S., data center energy demand could consume up to 9 percent of the nation’s electricity by the end of the decade, according to projections from the Electric Power Research Institute.

Recent corporate sustainability reports from tech giants Google and Microsoft show that the rise of AI is challenging the companies’ climate goals. Both companies have set ambitious targets for clean energy use and greenhouse gas reductions, but both have seen emissions rise sharply over the past year.

Residents of communities where new AI data centers are being built often express concerns about the burden on local energy and water systems.

Granholm said she believes growing energy demand can be met with clean energy sources, keeping the country on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation. She pointed to strong growth in renewable energy investment driven by incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure legislation.

“We expect more than 60 gigawatts of clean energy and storage capacity to be deployed this year,” she said. “That’s like building 30 Hoover Dams in one year.”

In some data center growth regions, a near-term challenge is building enough transmission lines to connect new facilities to clean energy sources. Granholm said her department is working to speed up the permitting process for transmission lines, and she pointed to recent projects that have invested billions of public and private dollars in new power lines.

In one such project recently announced in Virginia, data center developer and operator Iron Mountain is working with the state Department of Energy to install large batteries in a data center to store renewable energy.

Granholm said such partnerships show that demand for data centers can be a catalyst for further investment in renewable energy.

She added that DOE research into increasing efficiency offers hope that technology companies will be able to get more computing power from their data centers.

Granholm said she recently met with technology sector leaders and executives from several major utilities that operate large data center clusters to discuss ways to cope with the increase in energy demand. She also hinted at some major announcements on the horizon.

“We are committed to ensuring,” she said, “that America continues to be the world leader in technology and innovation.”