Could the oil companies be funding the AI companies in an attempt to keep fossil fuel demand high and make renewables seem like they are not reducing oil demand? This could be cost effective for the oil companies since they don't have to build the generation infrastructure to power AI. Who are the private investors in AI?

If you do the math the projected electricity demand by data centers for 2030 means that electricity production in the USA would have to double compared to residential use! That is simply impossible using the current grid. Solar farms powering data centers requires less permitting and no grid connection which seems preferable and would allow data centers to be built in remote areas so the noise does not affect homes. Batteries would keep the data centers running at night. If AI demands so much power, let them build the generation capacity themselves.

Also the math for the 2030 projections of the number of computer chips needed for AI are ridiculous, we would need ten new foundries in the US which is just not going to happen. The numbers I'm seeing related to AI ramp-up just make no physical sense.

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ZeroGravitas 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Electrification of transport and home heating already required a 2-3x increase in electricity supply. If your grid isn't planning for that until AI and still makes no mention of it in future plans then you should be asking questions.

Check out the graph of China's electrification.

https://preview.redd.it/china-is-electrifying-far-faster-tha...

	▲	rapjr9 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Everyone in the US is not going to buy a new car and a new home heating system within the next five years, but longer term that may be true. EV's can be charged off-peak to level the load without requiring new grid infrastructure. So it would seem utilities should now scrap their current long term plans and plan to build out new grid infrastructure much faster for data centers? Some grid projects take 5-10 years just to get approved. There are still years long backlogs in building new power transformers as well. The number of fabs required still seems excessive also. So overall the physical plants required for AI's projected trajectory do not seem possible, unless AI gets a lot more energy efficient and chips get much faster. Or those who want data centers build the power infrastructure themselves without competing with other electrifications.

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rapjr9 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Seems I'm not the only one thinking along these lines:

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/ai-is-power-hungry

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/what-happens-if-ai-hits-a...

Some of the comments there call out the lack of chip fabs and express a similar suspicion that this might be a ploy to increase fossil fuel demand.