Nuclear power
Suddenly, many private large public companies in the United States have announced they will be build small nuclear reactor facilities to produce electricity for AI.
Asia is home to 145 operable nuclear power reactors, with 45 under construction.
AOver the past decade, 70 new reactors were connected to the grid globally, 37 of which were in China.
As of 2024, there are 210 nuclear reactors shutdown worldwide. The US recorded 41 nuclear power plants who have been shut down. The nuclear power plants built 50 years ago had a life expectancy of about 50 years.
Amazon announced they will build three SNR plants.
The International Energy Agency forecasts that data centers’ total electricity consumption could reach more than 1,000 terawatt hours in 2026, more than doubling from 2022. Estimates suggest one terawatt hour can power 70,000 homes for a year.
Google and Kairos Power have announced an agreement to eventually build up to seven SMRs providing up to 500 MW of power.
The deal is projected to bring 500 megawatts of power to the grid. For context, Google consumed more than 24 terawatt hours of electricity last year, according to the company’s annual environmental report. One terawatt is equal to 1,000,000 megawatts.
24 terawatt hours of electricity is enough electricity to power over 1,680,000 homes. That was how much Google use last year before building AI. The United States will need a tremendous somehow of new electricity production. The estimates are 11% more, but I think the US may need twice that much!
Microsoft consumes as much electricity as Google uses each year.
Together, Tech giants Google and Microsoft are reportedly guzzling electricity at a staggering rate. New research reveals that both the companies consumed a whopping 24 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity during the year 2023, an amount that eclipses the energy consumption of over 100 countries.