11/15/2024

AI Data Centers Could Make Your Electric Bill Climb by 70 Percent

A new report quantifies just how much artificial intelligence might cost you

Every use of AI requires massive amounts of data, meaning as AI has surged, companies have been building more and more data centers across the country. Those data centers also require lots of energy to operate, and that means they could soon require more energy than what’s available on the grid.

If AI's energy demand outstrips electricity supplies, that has real impacts for Americans—like a higher risk of electricity outages, and higher energy costs. By 2029, consumers and small businesses could see their electricity bills increase 70 percent because of surging energy demand from AI data centers, according to a new report by the Jack Kemp Foundation, a Washington, D.C. think tank created by former Republican Representative Jack Kemp.

That means consumers will bear the brunt of AI’s increasing energy use, says Ike Brannon, coauthor of the study and a senior fellow at the Jack Kemp Foundation. This is already beginning to play out in Northern Virginia, which currently has the highest concentration of data centers in the world. In Virginia, data centers could use almost half of the state’s total electricity by 2030.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Fast Company.