by Steve Milloy, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow and Junkscience.com Founder
As appearing on RealClear Energy
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Artificial intelligence is here to stay. And it’s going to require more and more energy as its use increases and utility improves continually.
The fly in the ointment, right now, is that both Big Tech and utilities have been surprised by its energy requirements which are more than our grid can now easily accommodate. Since AI is Big Tech’s baby, it’s going to have to the lead on solving the energy problem.
Right now, consumers are bearing the brunt of this through energy price increases and reduced grid reliability. While the sudden surge in data center energy demands is the proximate cause of the problem, it can actually be traced back to the successive 2008-2009 global recession and President Obama’s climate agenda.
The near catastrophic financial crisis and fears of global warming gave rise to a zeitgeist of de-growth among the chattering classes. For the utility industry, whose profit model had always been selling more electricity, this meant it could expect low-to-no-growth in electricity demand.
To maintain and grow profitability, it would need to figure out a way to sell less electricity at higher prices.
