Can clean energy handle the AI boom?

00:09:18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGfJeH5HRDQ

Summary

TLDRThe video addresses green energy's capacity to meet the rising electricity demands posed by AI, cloud storage, and cryptocurrency. It outlines how data centers consume vast amounts of electricity, expecting their demand to double by 2026. Although companies like Google and Microsoft aim for net-zero emissions, they face challenges as their energy consumption rises largely due to AI integrations. The video calls for increased transparency in energy reporting from tech firms, emphasizing the urgency in scaling renewable energy to balance out the energy requirements of growing digital infrastructures.

Takeaways

  • 🌱 Understanding the impact of digital lifestyles on energy needs.
  • 💡 Data centers consume massive electricity—comparable to large towns.
  • 📈 AI's energy demands are expected to double by 2026.
  • ⚡ Companies struggle to meet renewable energy goals amid rising demands.
  • 🌍 Transparency in energy use from tech companies is crucial.
  • 🔋 Renewable energy infrastructure must scale up rapidly.
  • ⛏️ The connection between AI, cryptocurrency, and energy is significant.
  • 🚧 Tech companies face pressure from environmental advocates.
  • 🌬️ Renewable supply limitations could force reliance on fossil fuels.
  • 📊 Energy efficiency ratings could help consumers choose sustainable options.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:09:18

    The video discusses a question raised by a retired school teacher, Cathy, regarding whether green energy can meet the rising demands imposed by AI, cryptocurrency, and cloud storage. It highlights the increasing electricity requirements of digital life, particularly in data centers that house servers for these technologies. Data centers are extensive, often operating round-the-clock, and their electricity demand is growing, projected to double by 2026, significantly impacting climate goals. Researchers are examining the energy consumption related to AI, particularly large language models, and the broader implications for renewable energy capability in meeting rising demands.

Mind Map

Video Q&A

  • What is the electricity demand of data centers?

    Data centers consume a significant amount of electricity, with some as large as four football fields using as much electricity as 880,000 households.

  • How much electricity do AI and cryptocurrency consume?

    In 2022, AI and cryptocurrency accounted for about 2% of total global electricity demand, expected to double by 2026.

  • Can renewable energy meet the demands of data centers?

    Currently, renewable energy is not prepared to meet the increasing demands of data centers due to infrastructure limitations.

  • What are companies doing to address renewable energy use?

    Companies like Google and Microsoft have pledged to be net-zero by 2030 but struggle with the integration of AI and sustainability.

  • What is the role of transparency in the energy consumption of tech companies?

    Greater transparency from tech companies regarding their energy use is essential for accountability and sustainability measures.

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  • 00:00:00
    I spent some time recently reading
  • 00:00:01
    through a big spreadsheet of questions
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    submitted by vox's audience members and
  • 00:00:07
    one of them caught my eye it was from
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    Cathy a retired school teacher in New
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    York City what is the question that you
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    wanted us to answer so the question is
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    can green energy even begin to handle
  • 00:00:18
    the increased demands that Ai and crypto
  • 00:00:21
    and cloud storage are going to put on
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    our Energy System it's a good question
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    I've done some reporting on AI but I've
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    never thought much of the climate impact
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    of all the AI products we're
  • 00:00:31
    increasingly using and all of our
  • 00:00:34
    digital belongings like photos and
  • 00:00:36
    documents and emails getting stockpiled
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    in servers around the world they need a
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    lot of electricity and the electricity
  • 00:00:42
    has to come from somewhere this is all
  • 00:00:44
    happening while the climate crisis
  • 00:00:46
    demands we use less energy not invent
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    new ways to use more of it I think our
  • 00:00:51
    climate goals already feel pretty
  • 00:00:53
    impossible to me but now it's almost
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    like we haven't changed the goal poost
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    we've changed the entire game so let's
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    get to the bottom of
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    [Music]
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    this within Cathy's big question is a
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    more basic one about how much
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    electricity our digital lives require at
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    first I was thrown off that Kathy
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    mentioned things like cloud storage and
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    Ai and cryptocurrency in one category
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    but then I realized that their
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    electricity demands happen at the same
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    place data centers ultimately you're
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    talking about machines loaded up in
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    large facilities who generate
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    computations and they need power a lot
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    of it they need water uh they need space
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    I spoke to Alex D he runs a research
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    site called dig Economist where he's dug
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    into this exact topic data centers are
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    massive often windowless warehouses that
  • 00:01:46
    house thousands of servers that run
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    virtually non-stop some of the bigger
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    data centers are as big as four football
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    fields and use as much electricity at
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    any given time as 880,000
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    households there are more than 8,000
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    data centers around the world and the US
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    has more than any other country in 2022
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    data centers artificial intelligence and
  • 00:02:09
    cryptocurrencies made up about 2% of
  • 00:02:11
    total Global electricity demand but by
  • 00:02:15
    2026 that number is expected to double
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    which is like adding the amount of
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    electricity used by the entire country
  • 00:02:21
    of Sweden I'll explain why in a
  • 00:02:24
    minute all right support for this video
  • 00:02:28
    comes from clavo clavo works with
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    businesses to turn their data into
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    meaningful connections with their
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    customers through AI powered email text
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    messages and more according to clavio
  • 00:02:39
    over 150,000 Brands trust their data and
  • 00:02:42
    marketing platform to build smarter
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    digital relationships with their
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    customers during the holiday season and
  • 00:02:48
    Beyond clavio has no editorial influence
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    over our work but they make videos like
  • 00:02:53
    this possible learn more at the link
  • 00:02:56
    below that big jump from 2022 to 2026
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    six is thanks to Rising cloud storage
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    and cryptocurrency electricity demands
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    but it's also because of the AI boom We
  • 00:03:07
    Know AI requires a ton of computational
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    power but it turns out that the amount
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    of electricity it uses is a really
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    difficult question to answer AI is a
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    huge umbrella term that includes
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    everything from basic statistical models
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    that detect patterns and data to
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    generative AI that creates text and
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    images and videos that's the most
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    computationally intensive kind the thing
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    is the handful of private tech companies
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    that dominate the AI field don't really
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    disclose how much of their energy use is
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    dedicated to AI specifically if you look
  • 00:03:38
    at Google's latest environmental report
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    it clearly states they absolutely don't
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    want to make a distinction between
  • 00:03:45
    regular workloads and AI specific
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    workloads and these company's AI models
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    are mostly closed Source meaning no one
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    knows exactly how they are built this
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    has left some researchers to try to
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    piece it together on their own
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    researchers looked at an open source
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    large language model called Bloom that
  • 00:04:01
    has roughly the same amount of
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    parameters as
  • 00:04:04
    gpt3 and found that training something
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    like gpt3 required almost 1300 megawatt
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    hours of electricity about as much power
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    as consumed by 130 homes in the US for 1
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    year today large language models like
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    GPT 4 have hundreds of billions of
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    parameters if not a trillion and
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    researchers say that the computational
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    power required to train these models is
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    expected to double every 9 months so far
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    it has mostly been large language models
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    driving the AI energy boom of course
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    that could change going forward now we
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    see AI on the rise for image generation
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    and also specifically video generation
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    so far we talked about training a large
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    language model researchers also looked
  • 00:04:48
    at energy use from people actually using
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    it it's been estimated by myself and
  • 00:04:53
    others that a single jet GPT interaction
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    would take like 3 Watt hours which is
  • 00:04:59
    comparable to running a low Loom and LED
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    bulb for one hour so on itself it
  • 00:05:04
    doesn't sound like a whole lot but of
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    course hey it's the volume that matters
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    this is 10 times more than a standard
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    Google search and of course if you're
  • 00:05:12
    talking about millions or billions of
  • 00:05:14
    interactions the numbers start to stack
  • 00:05:16
    up quickly Alex took another research
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    approach by looking at the hardware used
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    for AI training and use over 95% of the
  • 00:05:25
    AI industry uses servers made by the
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    company NVIDIA they could sell one 1.5
  • 00:05:30
    million of their servers by 2027 he
  • 00:05:33
    multiplied that by the information
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    Nvidia publicizes about each of their
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    servers energy demand he found that data
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    centers devoted to AI alone could
  • 00:05:42
    consume around 100 terawatt hours of
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    electricity per year or about the same
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    as his home country of the
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    Netherlands there's a big part of
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    Kathy's question I haven't gotten to yet
  • 00:05:54
    can renewable energy meet the surging
  • 00:05:56
    demand from the world's data centers
  • 00:06:00
    the good news is that using green energy
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    is the stated goal of a lot of these
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    companies both Google and Microsoft have
  • 00:06:06
    made pledges to be Net Zero by 2030 but
  • 00:06:10
    there are signs that AI is disrupting
  • 00:06:12
    those plants that's because solar and
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    wind energy can't produce electricity
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    all of the time and these data centers
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    need to be running all of the time in
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    most cases they will just have a backup
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    connection to the power grid which will
  • 00:06:24
    uh have fossil fuels on it it's not just
  • 00:06:27
    that data centers are being built at a r
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    that renewable energy infrastructure
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    can't keep up with it can take a year to
  • 00:06:34
    build a data center but many more years
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    to get a solar or wind farm on an
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    electrical grid Google's 2024
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    sustainability report showed that the
  • 00:06:43
    company's emissions Rose by 48% from
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    2019 to 2023 in large part due to its
  • 00:06:49
    data center energy consumption
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    suggesting that integrating AI into
  • 00:06:53
    their products can make reducing their
  • 00:06:55
    emissions challenging there's already
  • 00:06:57
    evidence in the US that coal plants that
  • 00:06:59
    were meant to close are staying open
  • 00:07:01
    because of data centers electricity
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    demands and that state utilities are
  • 00:07:05
    building new natural gas plants for the
  • 00:07:07
    same reason but even if these tech
  • 00:07:09
    companies can look good on their
  • 00:07:10
    sustainability reports and get to Net
  • 00:07:12
    Zero they's still a problem the thing is
  • 00:07:15
    that our renewable energy Supply
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    globally is limited so if we attributing
  • 00:07:19
    an increasing part of that to the data
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    center industry the consequences that
  • 00:07:24
    there's less Renewables available for
  • 00:07:26
    everything else that probably will mean
  • 00:07:28
    that on the whole we will end up using
  • 00:07:31
    more fossil fuels anyway with all this
  • 00:07:34
    context the answer to Cathy's question
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    is that for right now we aren't prepared
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    for renewable energy to meet the
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    increasing demand of the world's data
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    centers so what do we do about this as
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    users it would be extremely difficult to
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    opt out of backing up our data on the
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    cloud or even refrain from using AI I
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    think AI is embedded in so many things
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    that I'm not sure I will have the option
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    to say I'm not using it you know I'm out
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    researchers like Alex say the best place
  • 00:08:05
    to start is to force more transparency
  • 00:08:08
    from these tech companies in the EU the
  • 00:08:10
    AI act doesn't really Force tech
  • 00:08:13
    companies to disclose anything with
  • 00:08:15
    regard to the environment and that's the
  • 00:08:17
    EU not even talking about the us yet
  • 00:08:20
    which is lagging behind a bit on this
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    matter some environmental organizations
  • 00:08:24
    and local communities are calling for
  • 00:08:26
    moratoriums on data centers and some
  • 00:08:29
    researchers have proposed the idea of an
  • 00:08:31
    Energy Efficiency rating so companies
  • 00:08:33
    and consumers can choose data centers
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    that are the most sustainable we could
  • 00:08:37
    also hope that the servers and data
  • 00:08:39
    centers will keep getting more energy
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    efficient but more than anything this
  • 00:08:44
    issue emphasizes how desperately we need
  • 00:08:46
    to be scaling up renewable energy and
  • 00:08:49
    fast not only to meet the ever
  • 00:08:51
    increasing data center demands but so
  • 00:08:53
    there's plenty of renewable energy to go
  • 00:08:57
    around if you like this video you'll
  • 00:08:59
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Tags
  • green energy
  • data centers
  • AI
  • cryptocurrency
  • energy consumption
  • renewable energy
  • climate impact
  • sustainability
  • electricity demand
  • energy efficiency