9-Jul-2025
Banking on #AI while committed to #netZero is ‘magical thinking’, claims report on energy costs of big tech
By 2040, the #energy demands of the tech industry could be up to 25 times higher than today, with unchecked growth of #dataCentres driven by AI expected to create surges in #electricity consumption that will strain power grids and accelerate #carbonEmissions.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1090445 #science #environment #climateCatastrophe
https://www.europesays.com/uk/250973/ France’s data centre energy demand to grow 74% by 2050 #DataCentre #DataCentres #EnergyConsumption #EU #Europe #France #NetworkInfrastructure #NuclearPower #SmallNuclearReactors
#Trump’s #OneBigBeautifulBill accelerates an American #energycrisis by hindering #wind, #solar, and #batterystorage projects: The bill’s impact on #cleanenergy projects, coupled with the increasing #powerdemands of #datacentres, may hinder the U.S. in the #AIrace against #China. https://fortune.com/2025/07/03/trump-big-beautiful-bill-accelerate-american-energy-crisis-ai-race/?eicker.news #tech #media #news
https://www.europesays.com/uk/236420/ Data laws, infrastructure gaps slow growth in AI and fintech sectors #Computing #DataCentres #DataProtectionCloudComputing #DigitalEconomy #Technology #UK #UnitedKingdom
Wind & solar generation has scaled up remarkably across the United States, but a growing share of this electricity is going to waste. When the grid can’t absorb all the power produced—either due to aging transmission systems or a lack of local load—the surplus is “curtailed”, or essentially wasted
https://www.theenergymix.com/data-centres-tap-into-wasted-renewable-electricity/
"To the naked eye the pollution is not visible."
Wonder Valley Update #2 takes a look at two op-eds supporting the project, provincial demands to dismantle environmental protections, and Elon Musk's xAI data centre fiasco - more behind-the-scenes information I couldn’t fit in the story for The Energy Mix.
#airpollution #Alberta #DataCentres #methane #climatechange #ableg #AIdatacentres #water #ozone
https://jodymacpherson.substack.com/p/wonder-valley-watch-its-marked-out
@davidho Air conditioning costs a lot of electricity. You need more renewables, often the grids are not made for such an over-use, especially since the big #dataCentres for AI trigger more #desertification in Spain. Nowadays we cool #AISlop, not people.
https://www.europesays.com/2172863/ Energy majors lock onto Southeast Asia in race for more gas for AI power demand #DataCentres #EnergyMajors #EnergyTransition #FlorenceTan #GasAssets #GasExploration #GasPrice #LiquefiedNaturalGas #lng #LNGPrice #Malaysia #NaturalGas #Petronas
#Nvidia announced #partnerships with #Europe|an countries and companies to build #datacentres using its graphics processing units for #AI. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/11/nvidia-gtc-paris-2025-ai-giant-makes-big-play-for-europe.html?eicker.news #tech #media #news
"Grid capacity is a limited public resource – priority should be going to housing, not data centres…
#FiannaFáil claims #housing is its top issue but… access to our public infrastructure and our natural resources are prioritised for #datacentres"
#SpéirGorm
www.independent.ie/irish-news/l...
Lynn Boylan: Grid capacity is ...
Elon Musk is choking a black community with air pollution to run a racist chatbot on a right-wing social media site. And the next data centre planned to run "Grok" will nearly double the number of fossil fuelled turbines.
Far from 'saving' the climate, it really looks like fossil-fuelled data centres are running climate-denying racist text generators for right-wing billionaires.
I found a new dataset that lays it all out pretty nicely: as bad as the generative AI data centre panic-build is, Musk is the worst of a bad bunch by a good margin.
Enjoy:
Links ->
The dataset: https://epoch.ai/data/ai-supercomputers?view=table#data-insights
Southern Environment Law Centre update: https://www.selc.org/news/resistance-against-elon-musks-xai-facility-in-south-memphis-gets-stronger/
Thermal images of the gas turbines: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/apr/24/elon-musk-xai-memphis
More Perfect Union short documentary on the town Musk is poisoning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VJT2JeDCyw
Musk's chatbot is racist: https://www.reuters.com/business/musks-xai-updates-grok-chatbot-after-white-genocide-comments-2025-05-17/
Once the site is grid connected, it'll raise power prices and increase grid-scale fossil fuel use: https://floodlightnews.org/power-for-data-centers-could-come-at-staggering-cost-to-consumers/ https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/business/energy-environment/data-centers-utilities-electricity-bills.html
A nice case study of a *defeated* 3.5 gigawatt data centre fossil fuel power station combo https://www.selc.org/news/a-rural-virginia-county-is-a-case-study-in-community/
Crikey!!
"The Irish grid is already under the most pressure in the EU from data centres, accounting for 18% of the national electricity consumption."
#DataCentres
#CO2Emissions
Excellent reporting by @conorocarroll.bsky.social for @investigates.thejournal.ie.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xnhbifcilcbhz44ml6q3zmze/post/3lqs6fup52b26
The investigative team at @TheJournal have, for the first time, mapped each existing and planned data centre in Ireland:
"Where are all the data centres and why should you care?"
https://www.europesays.com/2090703/ What your ChatGPT use is doing to the environment #DataCentres #ElectricityDemand #Environment #InternationalEnergyAgency #StaticElectricity
https://www.europesays.com/2090028/ Ireland losing investment because of slow progress on offshore wind projects, Limerick Chamber warns – The Irish Times #DarraghOBrien #DataCentres #ireland #limerick #MicheálMartin #RenewableEnergy #Renewables #shannon
“#Nvidia is seeking to reduce its reliance on #BigTech companies by striking new partnerships to sell its artificial intelligence chips to nation states, corporate groups and challengers to groups such as #Microsoft, #Amazon and #Google.
This week, the #American chip giant announced a multibillion-dollar US chip deal with #SaudiArabia’s #Humain, while the #UnitedArabEmirates announced plans to build one of the world’s largest #DataCentres in co-ordination with the US government, as the #GulfStates plan to build massive #AI infrastructure.”
#ArtificialIntelligence / #silicon / #SiliconChips / #AIChips / #diversification <https://archive.md/NHg7O> / <https://www.ft.com/content/2ba1d064-242d-4a2a-a381-374d9643e23a> (paywall)
Coverage of Hannah Daly's excellent presentation to the #Oireachtas on the unsustainable reality of #datacentres in #Ireland undermining #energysecurity & #climateaction through driving increased reliance on #fossilfuels.
#ClimateActionPlan #SpéirGorm #renewables
www.independent.ie/irish-news/e...
Energy expert says Ireland cur...
Data centre boom in Finland raises questions over energy, jobs and security https://www.byteseu.com/1012983/ #cybersecurity #DataCentres #DigitalInfrastructure #ElectricityPrices #Energy #Finland #ForeignInvestment #Kouvola #Technology #TikTok
TransAlta CEO says power producer expects to reach Alberta data centre deal this year
On Wednesday, TransAlta reported its first-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago.
#energy #business #technology #Alberta #Money #DataCentres
https://globalnews.ca/news/11169513/transalta-ceo-data-centre/