Travis Fisher
Travis Fisher and Joshua Loucks
This blog is part of a series on technology innovation and free expression.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative technology, promising to revolutionize industries, amplify productivity, and unlock innovations unimagined a decade ago. However, as with every disruptive technology, AI presents new demands on the resources that enable its growth—and none is more critical than electricity.
Meeting the rise in electricity demand driven by AI requires the same high-tech creativity that gave us AI in the first place. If we are to deliver on the promise of an AI revolution in America, we must recognize that the US electricity industry—as it exists today—is not up to the task of powering a fast-moving new industry with an insatiable thirst for “juice.”
Only by reimagining the industry through the lens of liberty and market dynamism can we meet the AI moment.
How Much Electricity Does AI Need?
Data centers—the backbone of AI operations—consume vast amounts of electricity to train models, process information, and support real-time applications. As industries integrate AI into their workflows, the demand for power will surge far beyond current projections. Experts disagree over the precise size and speed of electricity demand growth necessary to support AI, but the consensus is that demand growth over the next several years will be much steeper than we have seen in decades.
According to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, peak US electricity demand is projected to increase by 132 gigawatts (GW) over the next 10 years in the summer and 149 GW in the winter, a 15 percent and 18 percent increase, respectively. For context, the output of a large nuclear reactor, such as Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle in Georgia, is approximately 1,100 MW or 1.1 GW, and the entire fleet of nuclear reactors in the United States is about 95 GW. » Read More
https://www.cato.org/blog/we-must-unleash-free-enterprise-meet-electricity-challenge-artificial-intelligence