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Artificial intelligence and Bitcoin mining are driving up the energy consumption and emissions of data centers to new heights. In the US, there is a first online map that shows the CO2 emissions of server farms and promises to provide insight into the growing share of AI.
The most important in brief
- US data centers caused 105 million tons of CO₂ in 2024, which corresponds to 2.18% of national emissions.
- The energy consumption of US data centers doubled since 2018 to 4.59% of total consumption.
- 78% of US data centers were analyzed by Harvard researchers for energy consumption and CO₂ emissions.
- 95% of US data centers use electricity from sources that are dirtier than the national average.
- A new online portal shows emissions of all US data centers in real-time and is intended to support regulation.
Data center emissions have tripled since 2018. It is difficult to quantify what share AI applications have in this. A article on t3n starts like this. According to MIT Technology Review, a newly launched online portal could shed some light on which applications cause particularly high emissions in data centers.
A team from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has investigated 2,132 or 78 percent of all US data centers for energy consumption and CO2 emissions, whose capacities are increasingly used for AI training. When queries run through language models like ChatGPT, a ping occurs, but this still doesn’t say anything precise about energy consumption and emissions.
AI share not clear enough yet
In the twelve months up to August 2024, US data centers were responsible for 105 million tons of CO2 emissions and thus for 2.18 percent of national emissions. This is only slightly less than domestic commercial airlines. While emissions have tripled since 2018, the share of data centers in total energy consumption in the US has almost doubled to 4.59 percent during this period. This is why calls for new nuclear power plants are getting louder, especially since AI consumes so much energy.
However, it is still not possible to express exactly how much of this is due to GenAI since the ChatGPT boom in November 2022. This is because data centers process many types of data and, in addition to training or pinging AI models, also handle web hosting or storing photos.
The researchers at the School of Public Health are certain, however, that the AI share will certainly increase strongly, as almost all industries are betting on it and trying to benefit from it.
A climate-sensitive problem is that many of the US data centers are located in coal-mining regions like Virginia, which means the “carbon intensity” of the energy they use is 48 percent above the national average. This number is based on a study published on arXiv and not yet thoroughly reviewed. According to this, 95 percent of US data centers are connected to power sources that are “dirtier” than the national average.
“Will AI soon run out of power?“, is the question in another t3n article. In fact, it is becoming more difficult even in the land of unlimited possibilities to obtain building permits for new data centers and the power plants needed for them. Renewable energies could be the solution, but they are not available everywhere.
AI models are still largely limited to text and individual images, but after OpenAI launched its new model called Sora on December 9, 2024, models for video creation will also become more widespread and thus further drive up the energy consumption and emissions of data centers.
An important goal of research in the US was to develop a reliable method for recording the current energy consumption of data centers. This proved to be more difficult than initially thought due to the various sources and authorities.
Nevertheless, the researchers have succeeded in creating a portal that displays the emissions of data centers across the entire US. The long-term goal of the data pipeline is to support future efforts to regulate data center emissions, which will continue to increase in the coming years.
“The pressure between the environmentally and sustainability-conscious community and Big Tech will increase. But I assume there will be no regulation. Not in the next four years“, says Francesca Dominici, director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative and one of the co-authors of the study that is the basis for the portal.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the CO₂ emissions of US data centers up to August 2024?
US data centers emitted 105 million tons of CO₂ up to August 2024. This corresponds to 2.18 percent of total national emissions.
What share do data centers have in the total US energy consumption?
In 2024, data centers accounted for 4.59 percent of total energy consumption in the US. This is double the figure from 2018.
Why is it difficult to determine the exact AI share of emissions?
Data centers process many types of data, including web hosting and photo storage. AI training and requests are just one part of the usage.
Why are data center emissions problematic for the climate?
Many data centers are located in regions with coal-intensive power generation. Their carbon intensity is 48% above the US average.
What does the new online portal from Harvard researchers offer?
The portal displays emissions from all US data centers and is based on a comprehensive data collection. It aims to support future regulations.
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Source of title image: Adobe Stock / CaptainMCity
