How power-hungry AI could help fuel growth in alternative energy

Using AI can feel like watching a magic trick.

Ask ChatGPT for a photo and out it comes, no matter how elaborate or goofy the request. 

But behind the scenes are servers furiously working to power the technology — and using a lot of energy to do it. 

According to some estimates, the average ChatGPT query takes about 10 times more power than a Google search, and generating an image takes about as much as charging a smartphone. 

Depending where that power comes from, some warn the growth of AI could mean a massive spike in fossil fuel-related emissions. According to investment bank Goldman Sachs, carbon dioxide emissions from data centres could more than double between 2022 and 2030. 

But some experts say the news isn't all bad, and that growing demand for energy to power AI is also fuelling development of alternative forms of energy — from wind and solar to geothermal and nuclear — that could help propel the energy transition. 

With demand projected to rise for AI, tech companies are plowing big money into data centres: the mega-warehouses full of servers, routers and cooling systems needed to power the technology. 

The top 5 U.S. companies spending the most aggressively on AI forked over $105 billion in 2023 on data centres, and that's expected to rise to $187 billion in 2028, Bloomberg News has reported.

Globally, power demand from data centres is expected to grow 160 per cent by 2030, according to the Canada Energy Regulator. 

All this power needs to come from somewhere, and tech companies are balancing a range of priorities when they decide how to source it, said Ed Crooks, vice-chair for the Americas with Wood Mackenzie. They want it to be cheap, reliable and as environmentally friendly as possible given many of these companies' climate pledges. 

"It's not easy, often, to balance all those different objectives against each other," said Crooks, speaking to CBC News on the sidelines of this week's Energy Disruptors conference in Calgary.

LISTEN | The Cost of Living looks at the cost of AI:

In the near term, he said, the easiest way to hit the first two objectives is often with gas-fired power plants. And in the U.S., there's lately been a major surge in plans to build new plants. 

"[This] does have big problems because clearly power from a gas-fired power plant is not carbon-free and these companies all aim to be carbon-free," he said.