Artificial intelligence consumes gobs of power. The International Energy Agency projects that combined demand from data centres, AI and cryptocurrencies could more than double from 2022 to 2026 to hit 1,000 TWh, roughly equivalent to the entire electricity usage of Japan.
Several tech moguls are already nuclear converts. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has long been a fan of the technology, and is a founding investor in nuclear engineering firm TerraPower.
Well, the simple fact is that if we’re serious about using electricity for things that have always relied on petrolium, the first step is building a LOT of nuclear plants. Duh.
They realize that wind and solar just cannot provide the power, the reliability, the up time as nuclear