- The rapid expansion of AI is driving increased electricity demand from data centers, which threatens to undermine climate goals by significantly boosting energy consumption.
- Michigan’s robust utility energy efficiency policies, which saved 1.6 billion kWh in 2022, are at risk of being overshadowed by the energy needs of just two new large data centers.
- To reduce this impact, legislators must mandate stringent energy efficiency requirements and develop additional renewable energy sources for new data centers in Michigan.
The science fiction world has long speculated about the potential catastrophic outcome of artificial intelligence (AI) eventually coming to the point of dominating or even exterminating mankind. (Recall HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey.)
But more imminently, we are facing the ominous potential of exploding electricity demand from data centers, a.k.a. server farms being built to satisfy the huge growth in the use of artificial intelligence for an ever-expanding range of purposes. That AI-driven increase in energy consumption could quite literally ruin the plans that have been devised to address the looming climate crisis.
Leaving aside for now that much of this “AI” growth seems to be for fairly trivial purposes, let’s focus on the energy and climate ramifications.
Experts now forecast that electricity consumption from data centers will triple by 2030, to 390 terawatt hours. That’s equivalent to the usage of 40 million U.S. homes. A large new server farm might draw 100 Megawatts (MW) of electricity demand. That’s enough to power 80,000 households. Operating 24/7, such a data center could consume 875 million kWh of electricity per year.
Michigan data centers poised to vanquish climate goals
To get a sense of how disruptive that could be to climate goals of reducing energy use, it is instructive to consider some Michigan data. Michigan is fortunate to have one of the best utility energy efficiency policies in the nation, ranked in the top 5 of all states by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE).
This energy efficiency contribution is one of the core pillars of the governor’s climate policy. According to the most recent annual report from the Michigan Public Service Commission, all of Michigan’s electric utilities combined saved 1.6 billion kWh in 2022.
You can do the math. Just two new large server farms could increase electricity consumption in Michigan by more than all our utility energy efficiency programs combined are able to save in a year.
Adding several new large data farms would result in a backward step on Michigan’s climate goals. (Environmental advocates have noted that data centers also use a tremendous amount of water for cooling in addition to wrecking Michigan’s climate plans.)
This issue is imminent, as the legislature in Lansing is actively considering various policies and incentives to attract new high-tech server farms. So, what can be done?
Options for saving energy
One crucial action would be to set strong energy efficiency requirements on new data centers. The U.S. Department of Energy identifies numerous ways that server farms can be made more energy efficient.
At the most ambitious end, long-time energy guru Amory Lovins explains how with optimal design from the outset, total data center energy consumption can be reduced by over 90 percent.
Given the very real potential for the explosive growth of server farms to literally demolish Michigan’s best-laid climate plans, it would seem incumbent on government officials in Lansing to require that the strongest practical energy efficiency standards be applied to any new data centers (and ideally require that incremental renewable energy sources are developed to meet any remaining electricity consumption needs).