Why is US energy demand soaring - putting climate goals at risk?

[NickB79]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/21/why-is-us-energy-demand-soaring-climate-crisis

Demand for power is soaring, creating a new energy crisis for the United States – one that could make the climate crisis even worse.

After more than 30 years of falling or flat demand for electricity, forecasts say the nation will need the equivalent of about 34 new nuclear plants, or 38 gigawatts, over the next five years to power data centers and manufacturing and electrify buildings and vehicles, according to filings made to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and compiled by Grid Strategies.

Since those filings, several utilities have said they will need even more power.

Snip

Data mining is driving demand in Texas, where bitcoin and other crypto miners have requested the equivalent of roughly 41 new nuclear power plants to power their energy-intensive computer processes to generate the cryptocurrency.

God. Damn.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. "AI and the boom in clean-tech manufacturing are pushing America's power grid to the brink. Utilities can't keep up."

Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power
AI and the boom in clean-tech manufacturing are pushing America’s power grid to the brink. Utilities can’t keep up.

By Evan Halper
March 7, 2024 at 6:05 a.m. EST

Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid.

In Georgia, demand for industrial power is surging to record highs, with the projection of new electricity use for the next decade now 17 times what it was only recently. Arizona Public Service, the largest utility in that state, is also struggling to keep up, projecting it will be out of transmission capacity before the end of the decade absent major upgrades.

Northern Virginia needs the equivalent of several large nuclear power plants to serve all the new data centers planned and under construction. Texas, where electricity shortages are already routine on hot summer days, faces the same dilemma.

{snip}

A major factor behind the skyrocketing demand is the rapid innovation in artificial intelligence, which is driving the construction of large warehouses of computing infrastructure that require exponentially more power than traditional data centers. AI is also part of a huge scale-up of cloud computing. Tech firms like Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft are scouring the nation for sites for new data centers, and many lesser-known firms are also on the hunt.

{snip}

By Evan Halper
Evan Halper is a business reporter for The Washington Post, covering the energy transition. His work focuses on the tensions between energy demands and decarbonizing the economy. He came to The Post from the Los Angeles Times, where he spent two decades, most recently covering domestic policy and presidential politics from its Washington bureau. Twitter https://twitter.com/evanhalper

[SARose]

2. Texan Bitcoin miners profit

by using less electricity; advocates say all Texans should get the same chance

BY KEVIN VU AND EMILY FOXHALL
JAN. 3, 2024

When the news broke that Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms made $32 million by reducing — or being willing to reduce if needed — its energy use last August in Texas, the outrage was immediate.

Riot made that giant sum of money because of how the state’s electricity market is designed. Companies that use large amounts of power, such as manufacturers or petrochemical plants, have long profited in similar ways.

Snip

There are two ways that large power users can make money on the state’s main power grid, according to industry experts. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the grid, pays large industrial users that promise to reduce their power consumption as needed, giving ERCOT some wiggle room in case a power plant unexpectedly fails or power demand is higher than forecast.

A company such as Riot also can profit by buying power at negotiated rates ahead of time — retail power companies allow big companies to lock in prices that way — then selling it back into the state market when energy prices soar during extreme heat or cold. In Riot’s case, when electricity prices soared during the summer heat wave, Riot sold power back to TXU, a Dallas-based electricity provider, which sold it back to the grid.

Snip

More

So while the rest of us were sweating ourselves to death, bit coin companies cashed in. Same thing happened during the Great Freeze.

[sop]

3. The crypto industry is an incredible waste of natural resources, chief among those is water.

In addition to all the electricity it uses, Crypto used about 591 billion gallons of water in 2023.

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-mining-water-consumption-cooling-energy-demand-cryptocurrency-digital-assets-2023-12

[usonian]

4. Crypto and AI

Insatiable demand for power.

[NickB79]

5. I'm getting serious Matrix vibes lately from all this "AI needs more power!" chatter

Maybe we WILL all end up as bio-batteries to run the machines?

[Brenda]

7. I just knew Matrix was a documentary from the future!

We are so doomed.

[2naSalit]

6. Crypto.