{"id":364151,"date":"2025-01-31T16:38:47","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T15:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=364151"},"modified":"2025-01-31T16:38:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T15:38:49","slug":"claim-coal-powered-ai-will-consume-20-of-global-energy-by-2030","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=364151","title":{"rendered":"Claim: Coal Powered AI Will Consume 20% of Global Energy by 2030"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by<\/strong> Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026 plans to decommission several coal plants have been delayed<\/a> \u2026 20 per cent of global electricity use by 2030. \u2026 \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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AI is bad for the environment, and the problem is bigger than energy consumption<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published: January 30, 2025 2.43am AEDT
Hamish van der Ven<\/a>
Assistant Professor of Sustainable Business Management of Natural Resources, University of British Columbia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artificial intelligence technologies, like chatbots, are attracting growing scrutiny for their voracious energy demands<\/a>. However, energy consumption is only one part of their broader environmental impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Late last year, ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot run by OpenAI, celebrated its second birthday. In its brief existence, the platform has amassed over 300 million weekly users<\/a> who send roughly one billion messages to the chatbot per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere in tech, other companies marked less savoury milestones. Alphabet \u2014 the parent company of Google \u2014 recently announced that its GHG emissions are up 48 per cent since 2019<\/a>. At roughly the same time, Microsoft announced that its emissions are up 29 per cent since 2020<\/a>. 

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The burgeoning AI industry needs so much electricity that plans to decommission several coal plants have been delayed<\/a>. By some estimates, the collective demand of AI and other digital technologies will constitute 20 per cent of global electricity use by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0https:\/\/theconversation.com\/ai-is-bad-for-the-environment-and-the-problem-is-bigger-than-energy-consumption-247842<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft is re-commissioning Three Mile Island, but how many mothballed nuclear reactors are available? Even gas has limits. It was inevitable they would turn to coal in their hour of need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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AI Energy Surge – Microsoft to Re-Open Three Mile Island<\/a><\/blockquote>