The study this cites has data centre (so not just AI but all internet stuff) rising to 300TWh by 2030. Two years ago the USA’s power usage was 4000TWh a year. So in about 6 years time they estimate that data centres will be using about 8% of 2022’s electricity usage, up from currently about 4%. An increase sure, but hardly one that’s going to move electricity prices significantly.
I didn’t say anything about how prices work in a shortage, but I also sincerely doubt a 4% increase in 6 years (so 0.7% annually) is going to cause any shortages.
So, you have other information you are basing that on? Because the source is one of the top 3 consulting firms in the world.
I’m sure they will happily provide consultancy to the energy sector to avoid this issue, but I’m kinda surprised when random Lemmy accounts think they know better than a leading company like this.
Energy is a pretty tight market where supply and demand are tightly intertwined. So a big boom on the use side as AI is threatening has a good potential to outpace the capacity of the supply side to scale up… thus creating scarcity, driving up prices.
The study this cites has data centre (so not just AI but all internet stuff) rising to 300TWh by 2030. Two years ago the USA’s power usage was 4000TWh a year. So in about 6 years time they estimate that data centres will be using about 8% of 2022’s electricity usage, up from currently about 4%. An increase sure, but hardly one that’s going to move electricity prices significantly.
That not how prices work in a shortage.
I didn’t say anything about how prices work in a shortage, but I also sincerely doubt a 4% increase in 6 years (so 0.7% annually) is going to cause any shortages.
So, you have other information you are basing that on? Because the source is one of the top 3 consulting firms in the world.
I’m sure they will happily provide consultancy to the energy sector to avoid this issue, but I’m kinda surprised when random Lemmy accounts think they know better than a leading company like this.
Energy is a pretty tight market where supply and demand are tightly intertwined. So a big boom on the use side as AI is threatening has a good potential to outpace the capacity of the supply side to scale up… thus creating scarcity, driving up prices.