A big question looms over generative AI: what really is its impact on the environment? I spent months investigating a single campus of Microsoft data centers in the Arizona desert - designated in part for OpenAI - in an attempt to find out.
The process underscored just how little visibility we have into basic information, such as the water and energy consumption of these silicon monstrosities, which are now being built at an unprecedented rate, including in the desert.
While Microsoft has invested massively to improve the sustainability of its data centers, it is also a for-profit company. At times it has suppressed environmental impact measures or pushed the opposite narrative from internal projections, even as employees urged more transparency.
Meanwhile, after I FOIA'ed several agencies at the state, county, and city levels, the city returned relevant docs with all of the numbers redacted. (Screenshot attached.)
Neither are willing to inform the public about the real-world costs supporting this technological wave amid an accelerating global climate crisis.
My latest for The Atlantic.
https://lnkd.in/guPJs8wZ
Peru’s coastline lights up with clusters of vessels, but this isn’t prosperity.
This is a signal of crisis.
Those are Chinese IUU fleets engaged in illegal and unregulated squid fishing just outside Peru’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
In 2024 alone, Peru lost an estimated $300M, with squid catches collapsing by 70%. Artisanal fishermen, unable to compete with such massive fleets, have been forced into alternate livelihoods.
And this isn’t a one-off. These kinds of incidents repeat again and again across the world’s oceans.
At PierSight, we are building a constellation of SAR + AIS satellites designed to spot exactly these patterns. By continuously analyzing vessel movements, we detect density shifts, deviations, and emerging hotspots in real time - even when ships try to go dark by switching off their AIS.
This means authorities can take action fast, intercept IUU clusters at the cusp, and protect both sovereignty and livelihoods before it’s too late.
Video Credit: Robert Potter
Artificial Intelligence's rapid growth is not just a trend, it's a force that is driving up electricity demand, which is already challenging the power grid and tech companies. The strain is real and immediate.
The boom in Artificial Intelligence is leading to a significant increase in electricity usage, putting a strain on the already stressed power grid. From simple ChatGPT queries to complex AI-generated images and videos, the demand for power is escalating rapidly. Data centers, which consumed more power than entire countries in 2023, are at the forefront of this surge. Experts predict that if AI's power needs continue to grow at this rate, it could potentially outpace the grid's capacity, leading to a significant increase in reliance on non-renewable energy sources, a scenario that should raise concerns.
⚡ Soaring Electricity Consumption: Even simple AI tasks, like ChatGPT queries, consume significant power, equivalent to a 60-watt bulb running for 10 minutes, highlighting the intensive energy needs of AI technology.
🌍 Massive Data Center Demand: In 2023, data centers used more electricity than nations such as Italy and Taiwan. Their energy demand has surged over seven times since 2008 despite advancements in energy-efficient chips.
📈 Projected Growth: According to the Boston Consulting Group, data centers' power consumption could rise to 7.5% of the global total by 2030, tripling from current levels. This could overwhelm existing power generation capacities and strain renewable energy sources.
🌪️ Regional Vulnerabilities: In regions like Texas, which experienced deadly blackouts in 2021, the rising energy demands from AI data centers and crypto miners could lead to grid instability and increased risk of outages.
♻️ Energy Source Challenges: While tech companies aim to use green energy, the high consumption by data centers often exhausts available renewable resources. This forces power providers to rely more on non-renewable energy sources to meet overall demand.
#AIBoom#ElectricityDemand#PowerGrid#DataCenters#RenewableEnergy#TechIndustry#EnergyConsumption#AIGrowth#SustainableTech#EnergyChallenges
Have you ever stopped to think about the energy cost of a Google search or generating content with AI? I hadn’t, until it was part of my job to understand the environmental impact of the data centers that make these everyday actions possible.
Data centers—hidden behind the digital services we rely on—consume vast amounts of energy to store, process, and transmit data. They’re essential infrastructure, but their carbon footprint poses a serious challenge. That’s where sustainable data centers come in, and they’re about much more than just switching to renewable energy.
Here’s what many people *don’t* know:
- Some data centers now recycle the heat they generate, using it to warm communities or power other businesses.
- AI is being deployed to optimize energy usage, predicting demand and automating cooling systems.
- Waterless cooling systems are reducing the environmental toll of traditional water-intensive processes. (confusingly, this is also known as liquid cooling, because it uses specialized liquid in a closed loop to cool the servers, like how a radiator works in cars)
The best part? These sustainable solutions don’t just benefit the planet—they’re saving companies millions in operational costs and setting new benchmarks for innovation in technology.
#Sustainability#TechInnovation#DataCenters
The almost overnight surge in electricity demand from data centers is now outstripping the available power supply in many parts of the world, according to interviews with data center operators, energy providers and tech executives. That dynamic is leading to years-long waits for businesses to access the grid as well as growing concerns of outages and price increases for those living in the densest data center markets.
The dramatic increase in power demands from Silicon Valley’s growth-at-all-costs approach to AI also threatens to upend the energy transition plans of entire nations and the clean energy goals of trillion-dollar tech companies. In some countries, including Saudi Arabia, Ireland and Malaysia, the energy required to run all the data centers they plan to build at full capacity exceeds the available supply of renewable energy, according to a Bloomberg analysis of the latest available data.
By one official estimate, Sweden could see power demand from data centers roughly double over the course of this decade — and then double again by 2040. In the UK, AI is expected to suck up 500% more energy over the next decade. And in the US, data centers are projected to use 8% of total power by 2030, up from 3% in 2022, according to Goldman Sachs, which described it as “the kind of electricity growth that hasn’t been seen in a generation.”
Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eQRdGmuW
China just launched the world’s first commercial underwater AI data center—and it’s a bold move we can’t ignore.
This is big: 400 servers submerged 30 meters off the coast of Hainan, generating the computing power of 30,000 gaming PCs. It's already live, and it's tackling sustainability head-on—but it also raises serious questions.
There are clear benefits:
These underwater modules cut energy use by 30–60%, leveraging seawater for cooling instead of energy-intensive AC systems. That’s a potential $1.2M saved per unit each year and 12,000 tons of CO₂ avoided. No land required—100 modules could save 68,000 m²—and they’re powered by wind and nuclear energy. Ten companies are already using them for AI and gaming.
With 2024 marking a 1.5°C global temperature rise, this kind of innovation is timely.
The compromise:
Installing server pods underwater brings potential harm to marine life—noise, heat, and ecosystem disruption. A 1°C increase in ocean temps can shrink fish size by up to 30%. And while small pilots worked, this is commercial scale. Some say this move is more about AI dominance than climate solutions.
The debate:
Land-based data centers consume 416 TWh per year—and AI demand is doubling every 100 days. Underwater hubs could claim 15% of the market by 2030, cutting emissions—but at what environmental cost? We’re not just choosing between tech platforms. We’re choosing the future we want.
The conclusion:
We don’t have to pick sides yet. But we do need to ask the right questions. Sustainability isn’t just about energy—it’s about ecosystems, equity, and long-term resilience. Business leaders, investors, and technologists have a role to play in ensuring progress doesn’t come at the planet’s expense. We need the right data to measure the real impact and decisions could follow.
#ClimateChange#Innovation#DataCenters#EnergyEfficiency#Sustainability#BusinessLeadership#MarineEcosystems#AI#CenterforSustainableFutureKearneyKearney Middle East and Africa
Data centres are the lifeblood of our digital existence. These cathedrals of compute run everything from our social media posts to complex AI algorithms. However, their voracious appetite for electricity is raising concerns about sustainability and grid stability.
To grasp the scale of data centre power usage, consider that in 2022, global data centres consumed about 460 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity. One TWh can power roughly 95,000 homes for a year, meaning data centres collectively used enough electricity to power nearly 44 million homes – more than all the households in the UK and France combined.
Experts predict that by 2026, this figure could more than double, potentially reaching up to 1,050 TWh. This is equivalent to adding the entire electricity consumption of Germany to the global grid in just four years.
The burgeoning energy demand from data centres is becoming a significant political issue, particularly in countries hosting large numbers of these facilities. In Ireland, for instance, data centres are projected to consume up to 32% of the country’s electricity by 2026. This is forcing governments to grapple with challenging questions: How do we balance supporting the digital economy with ensuring energy security for citizens? Should there be limits on data centre development? These questions are sparking debates in parliaments and local councils, potentially leading to new regulations and policies governing data centre operations and energy use.
As awareness grows about the electricity consumption of our digital activities, we’re seeing a shift in public perception. Each Google search, streamed video, and AI-generated image has an energy cost, and society is beginning to reckon with this. However, it also raises questions of digital equity – as energy costs rise, will access to digital services become more expensive, potentially widening the digital divide?
Enter the concept of nuclear-powered data centres - facilities utilising small modular reactors (SMRs). As with all things AI, it initially sounds like science fiction, but these are being actively developed in some countries. These miniature nuclear plants, about the size of a couple of shipping containers, could potentially provide a constant, zero-emission power source right next to data centres. This approach promises to alleviate pressure on national grids, reduce carbon footprints, and provide a stable energy supply, although it also raises questions about public acceptance, regulatory challenges, and the long-term sustainability of nuclear waste management.
For AI, these insights paint a complex picture. The energy-intensive nature of AI, particularly in training large models, is contributing significantly to data centre electricity demand. This could lead to a push for more energy-efficient AI algorithms and chips. It might also drive a trend towards “AI decentralisation,” with more processing done on edge devices to reduce the load on centralised data centres.
Executive Director, Green Software Foundation (Linux Foundation) | Google Cloud Fellow | LinkedIn Top Voice | Sustainable AI & Green Software | Author | Let’s build a responsible future
The next evolution of sustainable AI isn’t just about using more efficient hardware—it’s about Autonomous AI Agents that code with sustainability in mind.
These agents are designed to operate independently, learning and adapting as they go, and have the potential to transform software development by writing energy-efficient code. They don't just optimize for speed; they prioritize minimal resource consumption.
Why This Matters for Sustainability
Modern AI models consume massive amounts of power, yet software development still prioritizes performance over energy efficiency. Agentic AI could change that paradigm by:
✅ Reducing Computational Waste: AI agents could select or generate the most efficient algorithms based on real-time constraints instead of defaulting to resource-heavy models. For example, they could optimize database queries to reduce data retrieval and processing or dynamically adjust resource allocation based on demand.
✅ Automating Green Software Principles: AI-driven frugal coding practices could optimize data structures, reduce redundant calculations, and minimize memory overhead. This could involve choosing the most energy-efficient programming language or framework for a specific task.
✅ Measuring & Optimizing in Real Time: The reward function would be clear: lower energy consumption, less latency, and reduced emissions—all while maintaining accuracy.
✅ Parallel & Distributed Optimization: AI agents could continuously refine codebases across thousands of cloud instances, improving sustainability at scale.
AI-Driven Innovation Archive for Green Coding
One of the most exciting ideas in autonomous coding is the "Green Code Archive"—an AI-generated repository of energy-efficient code snippets that could continuously improve over time. Imagine:
🔹 Reusing optimized code instead of reinventing energy-intensive solutions.
🔹 Carbon-aware coding suggestions for green data centers & renewable energy scheduling.
🔹 AI-driven legacy refactoring, automating migration to sustainable architectures.
Measuring AI’s carbon footprint after the fact isn’t enough—the goal should be AI that reduces energy use at the source. The future of sustainable tech isn’t just about efficient hardware—it’s about intelligent, autonomous software that optimizes itself for minimal environmental impact.
While this technology is still emerging, challenges remain in areas like training complexity and robust validation. However, the potential benefits for a greener future are undeniable.
Learn more about leading with Agentic AI and its transformative potential in my book, "Empowering Leaders with Cognitive Frameworks for Agentic AI: From Strategy to Purposeful Implementation" (link in the comments section).
#agenticai#greenai#sustainability
There’s been a lot of talk across the ecosystem about how well-positioned Australia is to seize the global data-centre opportunity.
Australia continues to attract world-class investment. In 2024 alone, Australia attracted around A$10 billion in data centre investment, making it the second-largest destination globally after the United States that year.
Capacity is forecast to more than double in the next decade, with deployable power capacity projected to rise from ~1.35 GW today to 3.1 GW+ by 2030, and an estimated A$26 billion+ in additional investment over that period.
But while the economic narrative is being loudly sung, there’s been much less substantive conversation about how we ensure this growth is sustainable environmentally, socially and economically.
That’s why econome proud to partner with Greenhouse, Climatalist and Barossa Green to bring you the first Better Data Centres initiative.
Using Barossa Green as a live case study, we’ll work through real delivery challenges across energy, water, planning, construction and community integration. Practical application, not theory.
Barossa Green is an 86-acre renewable-powered, water-positive data centre precinct in South Australia’s Barossa region, designed to integrate energy, cooling, water reuse and agriculture so the site operates as a net contributor to the local community and environment .
This matters because investment scale alone isn’t sufficient if:
⚡ energy demand outpaces renewables deployment,
🔋 grid resilience isn’t integrated into planning,
🚰 water usage pressures local supplies, and
🫂 communities feel the impacts without shared benefit.
Recently, the New South Wales Parliament has launched a nation-first inquiry into data centre growth, examining whether planning, infrastructure and environmental frameworks are equipped to manage rapid expansion. So this is very on-topic.
Each session in the Better Data Centres series is expert-led and grounded in practical constraints, with partners:
• Circular Ecosystems (circular precinct design)
• The Climate Risk Group Pty Ltd / XDI (planning & climate risk)
• Grids & Gunvor Group (power & grid integration)
• Enaxiom & Hydroleap (thermal & water systems)
• Modular delivery partner (to be announced)
📅 Sessions run 12:00–1:00 pm AEDT on Feb 17, Feb 19, Feb 24, Feb 26 and Mar 3.
Participants get a comprehensive Barossa Green briefing pack and background materials on next-generation data centres to support informed, practical discussion.
If you’re interested in participating, especially if you’re working at the intersection of data centres, energy, water, planning or regional development message me and I’ll be happy to share more information.