The Beaver Valley nuclear facility in Pennsylvania - Photo: Bloomberg News
These agreements offer significant benefits to the participating parties, but they also carry the potential for negative impacts on other industries and the American people.
Green and sustainable solution
According to the Wall Street Journal, AI development requires a massive number of data centers operating 24/7 without interruption. To achieve this, technology companies need an extremely large and stable power supply.
In the context of the world in general and the US in particular working together towards climate goals, this supply source also minimizes carbon emissions.
Conventional power grids cannot meet these specific needs. In this context, nuclear power has emerged as a nearly perfect solution for technology companies.
The Wall Street Journal, citing informed sources, claims that Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing arm of tech giant Amazon, is close to reaching an agreement with Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear power provider in the United States, to directly source electricity from a nuclear power plant in the eastern United States.
Earlier in March, another branch of Amazon also reached an agreement to purchase a nuclear-powered data center in Pennsylvania for $650 million.
In the tech industry, AWS is one of the world's largest providers of infrastructure for AI development and training. Therefore, this move by AWS is likely to be considered by the AI development community.
Agreements like these are expected to significantly accelerate AI development worldwide, as the time it takes to build data centers will be shortened by many years because there will be no need to wait for the construction of new energy infrastructure.
Conversely, they are also considered a "godsend" for the American nuclear energy industry. Over the past two decades, this sector has stagnated following the "over-construction" phase of the 1990s. Many nuclear power plants have been unable to compete with wind, solar, and natural gas power, leading to their closure.
However, technology companies are proving to be very generous by being willing to pay more for exclusive access to carbon-neutral electricity. This also demonstrates their commitment to developing environmentally friendly AI.
With ownership of 14 nuclear power plants in the US and producing over 20% of the country's nuclear power capacity, Constellation Energy has particularly benefited from this trend, seeing its stock value increase by more than 70% in 2024 alone.
Concerns about energy insecurity.
While offering significant benefits to all parties involved, these agreements also pose potential risks to U.S. energy security.
The fact that data centers are drawing power directly from nuclear power plants means that a large amount of energy will not be integrated into the national grid. Therefore, the United States could face the risk of power shortages. Consumers nationwide could also face higher electricity prices as supply becomes less abundant.
While promoting AI development as environmentally friendly, the complete "ownership" of nuclear power from factories by businesses could negatively impact sustainable development goals.
Even if technology companies plan to offset their nuclear power consumption by funding other renewable energy projects, many experts still worry that the energy industry will have to rely on natural gas to make up for lost power.
Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power do not meet the criteria of generating electricity continuously, day and night, without interruption.
Pennsylvania consumer rights advocate Patrick Cicero (officially elected by the state Senate) expressed his concern: "There is no precedent for anyone going to a nuclear power plant and saying, 'We're going to take all the electricity you can produce.'"
4.6 - 9%
According to the Wall Street Journal, it is currently unclear how much energy data centers will need. Estimates range from about 4% of total electricity consumption in 2023 to approximately 4.6-9% of electricity consumption in 2023, according to the Electric Power Research Institute.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/gioi-cong-nghe-my-mua-dien-hat-nhan-phuc-vu-ai-20240702002209142.htm
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