, Columnist
AI's Power Drain Demands a Novel Solution: Us
Building more electricity infrastructure adds to spiraling bills. Distributed grid resources and smart demand management are where the savings lie.
Rethinking the grid.
Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images North AmericaThis article is for subscribers only.
Big Tech is going nuclear in its pursuit of artificial intelligence. Power-hungry datacenters are just one part of a broader freak-out over how the US grid will handle even bigger loads including electric vehicles and re-shored factories, plus withstand extreme weather, all while decarbonizing at a reasonable cost.
The obvious answer is that we must build more supply. But we can also be much smarter on the other side: demand.