President Donald Trump recently stated that the AI industry requires more energy than the entire United States produces. However, experts disagree with this assessment.
Estimates and Projections
According to a report by the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the total power demand for data centers, which power AI, will account for 9.5% to 15.3% of the total U.S. electricity consumption by 2030. Another report by the Electric Power Research Institute projects that U.S. data centers could consume 9% to 17% of national electricity by 2030.
These estimates are significantly lower than Trump’s claim. Kenneth Gillingham, a Yale University economist, stated that Trump’s estimate is ‘very high relative to credible projections.’ Brendan Pierpont, the director for electricity at Energy Innovation Policy and Technology LLC, said, ‘I don’t see a pathway for data center demand to exceed total electricity demand in the U.S., or even approach anything close to that level.’
Original reporting: WRAL Raleigh — read the source article.
