The coming data center boom that’ll change energy forever

The article discusses the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the energy demands of data centers, highlighting a significant upcoming surge in electricity consumption driven by AI workloads. Kyle Baranko, Head of Product at Paces, emphasizes that the energy industry is intensely focused on data centers due to their rapidly growing power needs, with forecasts predicting U.S. data center power demand could rise from about 55 gigawatts today to 300 gigawatts by 2030. This growth is compounded by other electrification trends such as electric vehicles and hydrogen. Baranko notes that while AI contributes to increased energy demand, it also offers solutions by streamlining complex and time-consuming processes in energy project development, such as site research, permitting, and utility interconnection studies, thereby reducing project failure rates and accelerating deployment. Sustainability is a core concern in the evolution of AI-powered data centers. Baranko advocates for co-locating data centers with solar power and battery storage, using fossil fuels only as backup