Water Use: About 40% of energy data centers use goes to cooling. In 2021, Virginia Tech found that nearly half of US data centers then in existence were fully or partially powered by power plants located within water-stressed regions.
Generative AI search tools consume ten times the electricity of a typical Google search, according to the International Energy Authority. And most AI answers today are riddled with errors, researchers at Columbia Journalism Review’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism found recently. Leading AI-driven search engines incorrectly answered more than 60% of test queries.
Power Use & Costs:
1) Siting a data center properly can improve the affordability of electricity for domestic customers while reducing overall grid emissions.
2) Locating a data center near a renewable energy source and close to an existing generator with an approved grid connection protects customers from paying for infrastructure upgrades.
3) Moving AI systems from the cloud to your phone can mean a 100 to 1,000-fold reduction in energy consumption per task.
