Increasing AI demand forces tech companies to retreat from using the most eco-friendly power sources to power data centers

AI usage has grown rapidly in recent years, forcing tech companies like Microsoft to turn to nuclear power plants. This move is fueled by the popularity of generative AI chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and integrated AI like Microsoft CoPilot in Windows 11, resulting in an enormous increase in data center power demand that cannot be met by wind and solar alone.

McKinsey & Company predicts that data center power demand will increase from 3.7 percent of total US power demand to 11.7 percent by the end of the decade, and Morgan Stanley estimates global CO2 emissions will triple from 200 million tons to 600 million tons with the build out of additional data centers.

Operators at a data center in Memphis, Tennessee, used to train and operate the Grok 3 AI from X, want access to 150 MW of power, up from its current 50 MW allocation. This is said to be enough electricity to power 80,000 homes. The data center also draws 30,000 gallons of water per day from underground wells for cooling.

The high energy demand of AI models comes from the numerous calculations required to respond to user prompts. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside working with the Washington Post estimated that the use of OpenAI GPT-4 AI to generate a 100-word email requires a bottle of water for cooling and enough electricity to power 14 light bulbs for an hour.

Power plants and electrical transmission infrastructure are slow to build out. Many power companies are already facing shortages of power distribution units, switchgear, and transformers, often with accompanying delays exceeding one year. Power generation is also near or at capacity in many locations near current data centers. This has resulted in rolling blackouts in some areas, like California.

As a result, tech companies are turning to nuclear power to meet the need for electricity at their AI data centers. These plants are able to generate enormous amounts of electricity without the large land requirements of solar and wind farms. Nuclear power generation is also not dependent on daylight or wind.

Microsoft has not only invested in the construction of a new nuclear power plant, but also has recently paid to restart a reactor at the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, site of the 1979 nuclear meltdown. This accident released radioactive gases into the air and is the worst nuclear disaster in American history — although it pales next to the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters.

Nuclear power plants in America generate very hazardous radioactive waste. Unfortunately, the American government still has not designated where to dispose of this waste in the long term following the termination of funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository during the Obama administration. Nuclear plants also use water for cooling, which has harmed marine life when drawn from nearby oceans.

Readers who want to save the planet can buy a solar panel kit (like this one on Amazon) to charge laptops and phones with the sun. AI enthusiasts can run AI LLM models locally on clean, solar-powered laptops instead of in nuclear-powered data centers.