What’s going on here?
Ireland’s electricity grid is straining to keep the lights on at its many data centres. And the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is making it harder.
The Irish environment minister has warned that tech companies should invest in their own renewable energy supplies, amid concerns that their energy use is derailing climate progress.
What does this mean?
Ireland is a hub for data centres, with 82 currently operating and more on the way. A data centre is a large warehouse filled with servers which run computer systems 24 hours a day. They’re the essential infrastructure behind the websites many of us use every day.
Data centres use over a fifth of Ireland’s total electricity – that’s more than all the homes in its towns and cities combined. This went up 20% between 2022 and 2023, and is still rising. And the Irish grid is struggling to cope. It’s even started turning down plans for new data centres.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s minister for the environment, climate and communications, said “I don’t think any sector can opt out from the climate challenge that we all face”, saying Ireland’s data centres must “work within the climate limits which we’ve committed to”.
Why should we care?
Using the internet might not feel like a carbon intensive activity, but it is. Every search, email, click, like and swipe is made possible by a data centre whirring away in the background, often far away. They use loads of electricity, mainly to stay cool and prevent servers from overheating.
The AI boom is driving usage higher. The International Energy Agency predicts data centre energy use will double by 2026. That’s because AI uses a huge amount of computing power; a Chat GPT query uses nearly 10 times as much electricity as a regular Google search.
Powering data centres with renewable energy will be a big part of the solution. Ryan, who is the former leader of Ireland’s Green Party, will publish a report next month on Ireland’s energy policy and hopes it will drive change in setting climate standards for data centres.
There are other innovations happening too. Tech giant Nvidia claims to be developing more energy-efficient AI chips. Some startups are cooling their data centres more efficiently by submerging them in liquid, which reduces the need for fans and air conditioning. And some data centres could even be using waste heat to keep your local swimming pool toasty.
Be curious
🤖 Need a primer on AI? Read Helen’s take on the opportunities and risks of AI from the Curious archives
🚮 Have a digital declutter and delete your old emails – storing old (virtual) stuff wastes carbon
🌳 Switch to searching with Ecosia, the search engine that plants trees
💻 Read more advice on how to clean up your internet habits
Image by Matthew Henry via Unsplash
