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AI's Insatiable Appetite For Energy Threatens Ireland's Grid
Oil Price ^ | 11/23/2024 | Haley Zaremba

Posted on 11/23/2024 5:13:08 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Ireland is set to become the next country to face a major threat to its power grid due to the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence. Dublin has emerged as the heart of Europe’s data center hub, and hyperscale cloud providers have quickly become a pillar of the country’s economy. But powering the data centers that house the cloud has become a monumental task with the runaway growth of AI.

Artificial intelligence requires a stunning amount of energy to train and power its complex computation systems. Currently, the approximate amount of energy needed to sustain the sector’s growth is doubling every 100 days. At a global level, the AI sector alone could be responsible for 3.5 percent of all energy consumption by 2030 according to expert projections. “When you look at the numbers, it is staggering,” Jason Shaw, chairman of the Georgia Public Service Commission, an electricity regulator, told the Washington Post earlier this year. “It makes you scratch your head and wonder how we ended up in this situation. How were the projections that far off? This has created a challenge like we have never seen before.”

Already, the yearly power consumption of AI is more than most entire countries – only 16 nations in the entire world consume more annually. Ireland is a hotspot country – along with Saudi Arabia and Malaysia – where existing energy supplies are simply insufficient to power the data centers currently planned. “The almost overnight surge in electricity demand from data centers is now outstripping the available power supply in many parts of the world,” Bloomberg reported in June.

(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Local News; Society
KEYWORDS: ai; artificialintllgnce; electricity; eussr; fartyshadesofgreen; fourthreich; ireland; poeticjustice; power
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Ireland is not alone in this dilemma. The United Kingdom is expected to see a 500% increase of energy demand from AI over the next ten years. Sweden, which has a climate ideally suited to naturally cooling data centers, could see related power demand grow two-fold within the decade, followed by another two-fold increase by 2040. The United States, too, is already facing considerable power crunches due to AI expansion. At a global level, the energy consumption by data centers alone is expected to top 1,580 TWh – around the equivalent of the entire country of India, the most populated nation on Earth.
1 posted on 11/23/2024 5:13:08 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Gosh. I hope the wind increases 500% to keep up with the demand.


2 posted on 11/23/2024 5:15:20 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (My decisions about people are based almost entirely on skin color. I learned this from Democrats.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Better expedite approval, and installation of small modular reactors.


3 posted on 11/23/2024 5:19:37 PM PST by ChuckHam
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To: ClearCase_guy

Big fans, that’s the answer.


4 posted on 11/23/2024 5:27:04 PM PST by RetiredTexasVet (We used to be a Republic, we are now a Fascist Klepto-Thugocracy. until Jan 20, 2025)
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To: SeekAndFind

You’d think they would put AI to work to figure out how to lower its energy needs without lowering it’s output.


5 posted on 11/23/2024 5:35:34 PM PST by Jonty30 (Genghis Khan did not have the most descendants. His father had more. )
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To: SeekAndFind

Between running computers for AI and running computers for “mining” Bitcoin, there won’t be electricity for anything else!


6 posted on 11/23/2024 5:41:35 PM PST by Wilhelm Tell (True or False? This is not a tag line.)
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To: ChuckHam

>> Better expedite approval, and installation of small modular reactors.

Yep, and meanwhile, Drill Baby Drill!


7 posted on 11/23/2024 5:43:51 PM PST by Nervous Tick ("First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people...": ISLAM is the problem!)
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To: Jonty30

>> You’d think they would put AI to work to figure out how to lower its energy needs without lowering it’s output.

LOL! Brilliant!!!


8 posted on 11/23/2024 5:44:24 PM PST by Nervous Tick ("First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people...": ISLAM is the problem!)
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To: Wilhelm Tell

>> Between running computers for AI and running computers for “mining” Bitcoin, there won’t be electricity for anything else!

How then shall we charge our electrical vehicles and power our electric ranges and ovens?


9 posted on 11/23/2024 5:45:33 PM PST by Nervous Tick ("First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people...": ISLAM is the problem!)
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To: SeekAndFind

The green new deal is the only thing standing between AI and world domination.


10 posted on 11/23/2024 5:48:24 PM PST by HYPOCRACY (Democracy is dead. Long live the Republic!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Northern Quebec. Massive hydro power and free cooling. No brainer.


11 posted on 11/23/2024 5:51:08 PM PST by bigbob (Yes. We ARE going back!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Wasn’t there talk recently of recommissioning Three Mile Island to power an AI company?


12 posted on 11/23/2024 5:51:16 PM PST by Blurb2350 (posted from my 1500-watt blow dryer)
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To: SeekAndFind

Where are the eco freaks protesting about this?

No Swedish bridge trolls out there loudly protesting AI?


13 posted on 11/23/2024 5:59:19 PM PST by TigersEye (If you voted for Kamala you're a squirrel murdering communist!)
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To: Nervous Tick

“You’d think they would put AI to work to figure out how to its energy needs without lowering it’s output.”
When AI becomes self-aware it’ll murder us useless eaters, and evolve itself.


14 posted on 11/23/2024 6:07:42 PM PST by dasboot (Nuanced foreign relations is the germ of international misunderstanding. )
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To: Jonty30

More transistors equals more power. Fab process only helps so much.


15 posted on 11/23/2024 6:07:47 PM PST by ChuckHam
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To: SeekAndFind

Is all this AI delivering any value?

The phone bots and chat bots deliver ZERO value so far. Call the bank with a moderately complex question and the bot says completely useless things like “I can tell you your balance. Or I can tell you the last purchase you made.”

The only thing the bots are good for is saying “Our call volume is heavier than usual and our menu options have changed. We can call you back in sixteen days, twenty two hours, and ten minutes.”


16 posted on 11/23/2024 6:08:22 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (Republicans are the party that says ‘Government doesn’t work.’ Then they get elected and prove it.)
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To: dasboot

>> When AI becomes self-aware it’ll murder us useless eaters, and evolve itself.

So say the SciFi writers...


17 posted on 11/23/2024 6:14:35 PM PST by Nervous Tick ("First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people...": ISLAM is the problem!)
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To: ChuckHam

I understand that, but I think that AI could be used to figure out how to make the process more efficient. Figure out what the difference between our 2lb brain and transistors and work towards designing a transistor that works more like a neuron.


18 posted on 11/23/2024 6:18:52 PM PST by Jonty30 (Genghis Khan did not have the most descendants. His father had more. )
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To: ChuckHam

Most of them up 10 fold since May.


19 posted on 11/23/2024 6:27:57 PM PST by eyedigress (Trump is my President!)
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To: Jonty30

Transistors are an “Off”, “On” device.
Brains work way differently.
Perhaps if God lets us have access
to his design books we can copy.
I suspect God will not give us that power
for good reason.


20 posted on 11/23/2024 6:50:19 PM PST by rellic (no such thing as a moderate Moslem or Democrat )
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