European datacenter energy consumption set to triple by end of decade Datacenter power consumption across Europe could roughly triple by the end of the decade, driven by mass adoption of everyone's favorite tech trend: AI. "In the last two decades, no technology has driven the need for accelerated power infrastructure development in Europe more than AI," analysts wrote in a McKinsey report …
"One way to reduce AI’s impact is to place datacenters close to locations that produce clean energy. "
Hardly. That only minimises grid losses, other than that very modest gain it has no bearing on the NET impact of any DC.
The only way a DC's power impact can be significantly reduced is if the operator builds, or pays for the building of new low emission generating capacity that wouldn't otherwise have been built, and whose construction doesn't supplant or block any other public grid renewable projects. Otherwise, even with an over-the-fence power connection all that's happening is that the DC uses clean power that would otherwise have been used by the rest of the economy. In much of Europe, gas CCGT is the swing power source, so if (say) Microsoft contract to buy power from an Irish windfarm that was being built anyway, then instead of that new output supporting extant industry, services and consumers, chances are their demand has to be met by the grid's balancing mechanisms, most likely from EirGrid calling power from the UK grid, where it will be coming from CCGT. And because the UK gas grid tops up with loss-heavy LNG, the net emissions will be considerable. Pretty much the same scenario across most of Europe.
Note: Not sure if it's the Reg intern, or the McKinsey intern - I'll plump for the latter.
Funny you should mention Ireland as they were estimating the drain on their grid by data centres doubling over the next decade, and to counter this, they were insisting that any new data centre has to include on-prem green power to reduce the impact to the wider grid.
Think that was from a BBC article - but could have been from these very pages.
Either way, we're seeing this now: That Data centres are increasing base load on the grid meaning there's less capacity for the rest of society, and our wonderful UK Government has now suggested that Data Centres are 'essential services' so would be a priority for power should there be a short fall.
It's just one element of a tapestry of decisions that call into question the motivation for making all things electric when we're told the existing grid can cope, yet we have also been warned of rolling power outages - and yes, there have been power outages in this area over the past few years - and they've become more frequent over that time, too. So something isn't right: Either there's a lot more thefts hitting substations, more building work hitting mains power, or the grid is close to capacity already and yet more demand is being added.
I'm sure the detail of any Irish on-prem green power requirements means "not very green at all". Solar's going to be a poor resource for any DC at these latitudes, on shore wind offers greater capacity factor but is still painfully intermittent. SMR aren't coming to the rescue any time soon, so it'll be fossil gas, and some Excel spreadsheets to show that somebody somewhere else has done something that offsets it all, honest.
As for the grid being close to capacity, it is in some areas, not in others. There's also a lot of stress put on the grid by renewables that fade in and fade out as nature sees fit. Been some very squeaky bum moments for National Grid in the UK caused by all those crappy solar farms that the morons of government think are wonderful.
"Funny you should mention Ireland as they were estimating the drain on their grid by data centres doubling over the next decade, and to counter this, they were insisting that any new data centre has to include on-prem green power to reduce the impact to the wider grid."
That has been covered in several recent Register articles:
"Google’s Irish bit barn plans denied over eco shortfall" - https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/27/google_data_center_ireland/
"Equinix pilots use of fuel cell in 'shipping container' outside datacenter" - https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/16/equinix_shows_off_demo_fuel/
"Datacenters guzzled more than a fifth of Ireland's electricity in 2023" - https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/25/ireland_datacenter_power_consumption/
"Vantage enters crowded Irish datacenter market with new Dublin site" - https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/vantage_dublin_datacenter/
"Digital Realty wants to turn Irish datacenters into grid-stabilizing power jugglers" - https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/23/digital_realty_irish_grid/
"Datacenters could account for a third of Ireland's electricity by 2026" - https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/24/iea_report/
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