AI Threatens To Destroy Electric Grids Worldwide

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A new report says that, if not correctly managed, AI’s use of electricity could collapse much of the world’s energy grids within the decade. However, with proper management, this could be avoided altogether.

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The Schneider Electric Sustainability Research Institute issued the report. It offers four scenarios, the most catastrophic of which it calls the “Energy Crisis Scenario.” The period covered by the research runs from 2025 to 2035. The authors write the “Energy Crisis scenario, illustrating potential energy instability when AI development outpaces grid capacity.”

More detail, “The rapid growth of AI leads to an unforeseen energy crisis, where AI’s electricity demand begins to conflict with other critical sectors of the economy. This triggers a cascade of negative consequences, including economic downturns and severe operational challenges for AI-dependent industries.”

The dangerous scenario has already begun in some parts of the US. AI server farms use so much energy that the aging US grid infrastructure and electricity generation facilities are inadequate. This danger has caused companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon to announce plans to build their energy installations, many of which would use solar or nuclear power. The problem with this approach is that it may take years to build these. Nuclear energy is heavily regulated. However, the investments by these companies will need to be in the tens of billions of dollars to work at all.

The Public Grid

Additionally, some of these “private electricity systems may have to use the public grid to move electricity from one location to another.

The use of AI energy already threatens to compete with residential and legacy businesses. This, in turn, may increase rates, and there may even be energy rationing.

Forecasts of AI-triggered electricity catastrophes are very real.