Every query posed to ChatGPT consumes approximately tenfold the amount of electricity compared to a standard Google search.
The nonprofit research organization Electric Power Research Institute reports that a single request to ChatGPT consumes approximately 2.9 watt-hours of energy, whereas conventional Google searches typically utilize around 0.3 watt-hour per query.
With an estimated 9 billion daily searches, this would mean an additional demand of nearly 10 TWh of electricity per year.
The artificial intelligence sector depends on data centers for training and running its models, which escalates energy consumption and adds to worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
Microsoft reported that its carbon dioxide emissions had increased by approximately 30% since 2020 because of the growth in their data center infrastructure.
In 2023, Google experienced an increase of nearly 50% in worldwide greenhouse gas emissions compared to those recorded in 2019, primarily because of the substantial energy requirements associated with their data centers.
At present, energy consumption by artificial intelligence constitutes just a portion of the tech industry's overall electricity usage and is believed to account for approximately 2 to 3% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
Nevertheless, this figure is expected to increase as additional businesses, governmental entities, and institutions adopt AI technologies to boost efficiency and productivity.
In which locations within the European Union are the data centers situated?
Currently, there are over 8,000 data centers worldwide, and approximately 16% of them are situated in Europe.
Most of these centers are located in the financial hubs of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that electricity usage within the data center industry across the European Union could climb to nearly 150 terawatt-hours by 2026.
In 2022, the electricity consumption by data centers in Ireland amounted to 5.3 terawatt-hours, which accounts for 17 percent of the nation's overall electricity usage.
This is equal to the energy used by all residential areas in cities.
Should the usage of artificial intelligence applications keep growing rapidly, this sector might represent as much as 32 percent of the nation's overall power consumption by 2026.
Denmark is home to 34 data centers, with half of these facilities situated in Copenhagen.
As in Ireland, Denmark’s total electricity demand is forecast to grow mainly due to the data centre sector’s expansion, which is expected to consume 6 TWh by 2026, reaching just under 20% of the country’s electricity demand.
In the meantime, data centers located in Nordic nations like Sweden, Norway, and Finland profit from reduced electricity expenses.
This can be attributed to reduced cooling requirements because of their cooler climate.
In terms of the number of data centers among Nordic nations, Sweden stands out as the leader with a total of 60 data centers, over half of which are located in Stockholm.
In light of decarbonization goals, both Sweden and Norway might boost their involvement in the data center sector as a significant portion of their electricity comes from low-emission sources.