AI eats energy for breakfast.
By Jo Nova
AI hunger for reliable baseload power is insatiable
Consider the situation in the UK. More than 140 data center projects have applied for a grid connection in the UK. If they all get connected they could draw 50 gigawatts of electricity, which is more than the rest of Great Britain uses in a single peak day.
Thanks to Paul at Notalotofpeopleknowthat:
AI data centres risk doubling Britain’s energy use and pushing up bills
By Matthew Field ( Telegraph)
The data centres being built to power Labour’s AI ambitions will use more electricity than the rest of the country put together, the energy regulator has admitted.
Ofgem has disclosed that more than 140 data centre projects have come forward seeking grid connections, with requests for more than 50 gigawatts (GW) of capacity.
If these projects were all built and operating at full capacity, they would require more power than Britain’s peak daily energy demand this month of around 45GW.
The energy watchdog said the UK power network was facing “rapidly growing demand queues” and “unprecedented large-load connection requests”.
Ofgem said the volume of grid connection requests it had received “exceeds even the most ambitious demand forecasts”
Friends of the Earth have noticed that this might get in the way of the sacred cow called Climate Change (though it’s hard to imagine how, since wind and solar power are free and cheap and everyone likes them, right?)
So Friends of the Earth and 5 other NGO’s are warning that AI might ruin all their decarbonizing plans. But the rate of change has been extraordinary.
Ofgem has seen a surge in demand for connection applications – the total capacity of contracted connection offers rose from about 41GW in November 2024 to around 125 GW by June 2025. For comparison, peak electricity demand in Great Britain on 11 February 2026 was 45GW.
[The letter] calls for data centre developers to demonstrate that their projects will not cause an increase in the UK’s overall carbon emissions or local water scarcity, as part of a forthcoming national policy statement (NPS) on data centres.
The AI race is a hell-for-leather competition to create the ultimate force-multiplier before our adversaries do. Therefore our adversaries would be crazy not to fund the non-government agencies that slow down progress.
AI is wrecking the renewables bubble even before it grows up.
We can’t allow our end of the world forecast to undermine our ambitious demand forecast.
Or is it the other way ’round?
Sometimes I can’t tell which way to follow The Science.
321
The earliest record I have about “the end of the world” was around 500AD, but that was cutting short on previous predictions.**
“The end of the world” became popular when people gave money to the loudest soothsayers.
The smartest soothsayers were the ones who retired elsewhere when most people stopped listening and donating money.
**Sorry, it’s filed away (because of entries).
230
Don’t let the end of the world undermine our end of the world forecast.
130
What a surprise, NOT. Even Bill Gates threw in the towel when he understood the BS about their so called dangerous CC.
So when will the clueless Labor, Greens and Teals etc wake up to their lies and BS?
Why don’t they just spend a quick 5 minutes online that proves Humans are living in the safest period for 300 K years?
370
The Left have a real dilemma.
Since most AI is trained with a strong Leftist bias from Left-comprised sources like Wikipedia and social media it’s a major vehicle to promote Leftist propaganda as anyone who has ever asked AI social, political, historical, covid, “climate change” or other related questions would know.
It’s also used by Governments to trace and track people and arrest them for opinions expressed on social media not in conformity to the Official Narrative such as in China or indeed any country that looks to China for mentorship such as Australia (although the arrests for opinions are only small at the moment). Gulag AI says:
So AI is essential to the mission of the Left, but at the same time it compromises their anti-energy policies because it needs vast amounts of cheap, reliable power, not doable with solar, wind and Unicorn flatulence.
They have to choose between promoting and enforcing Leftism or no energy. They can’t do both.
353
David Maddison,
On the contrary: AI is pretty much *ideal* for those who want to see ordinary people starved of energy.
Jo’s article shows a more than doubling of demand for electricity in the UK. What is that going to do to the electricity price?
Maybe it’ll lead to a two-tier grid, where data centres (and inner-party members) get connected to dispatchable generators, and the rest of us continue to battle with intermittents.
161
What on Earth can possibly require such gargantuan storage? Google already has the whole Web cached and indexed, and my phone invited me to use Gemini, Samsung’s AI today. We already seem well catered for.
As for the future. Well,
check out Windows Recall, every five seconds Windows 11 will save a screenshot for searching for your prior activities if you want to. Google’s love of our data is already well known but it’s Chromebook Linux range will, like Windows, come with auto updates enabled, they will install what they like.
Windows 11 aim Of allowing seamless movement between devices, together with various sharing and syncing options between devices, insert a web link into all kinds of functions and open your files to the world. Permissions had better be well thought out. Various Find My Device and Find my Phone apps use bluetooth to reach out to other devices, and exchange locations. These are all fed back to a server.
I predict a clean out of AI companies with glorious retirement packages for surplus execs and fire sales and receiver sales of data centres, probably snapped up by Microsoft and Google, possibly with Government assistance to ensure stability of the market. Within a couple of years I see a blue flesh on the horizon as every Bluetooth device on Earth Feeds back to data centres and enables complete surveillance.
It’s all in place already Folks, delivered via auto updates, just waiting for the right conditions to crystallise into a world wide mess. Throw in compulsory identification to save our 16 year olds from porn on the web and what can go wrong folks. it is not 16 year olds who have to identify themselves it is everybody over 16. 16 year olds will just continue to lie.
Cheers
91
I recently received a notification from YouTube asking me to verify my age, with restrictions on my account put in place until send verification was supplied. The first video l posted was 19 years ago. I guess AI isn’t being employed by Google to discern what account holders do or do not need to provide age verification.
I guess it’s just a question of whether Google is merely lazy or if they are willingly abetting governments in their push to make all citizens readily identifiable in the digital realm.
80
It’s interesting how quickly AI (or at least ChatGPT) can be deflected from an apparent leftist bias when confronted by hard fact: https://cliscep.com/2025/09/10/an-exchange-with-chatgpt/.
70
That’s a really good article RG. Interesting to see how ChatGPT adjusted its replies when presented with new data (that is to say, new data relative to the usual Left biased information that the AI gravitated toward initially).
You wouldn’t expect a similar adjustment in opinion if a skeptic was debating a Leftist and presented cogent facts for consideration.
At first ChatGPT emphasised the UKs historical emissions, contemporary per capita emissions and a greater responsibility to set an example to developing nations. At the end of the exchange, ChatGPT says:
“It is time to recognise reality: there is nothing the UK can now do that will make a discernible difference to the global climate trajectory”
Aye AI.
50
“…can be deflected from an apparent leftist bias”
But you will soon be exhausted if you try to do it every single time.
50
Well done. Your patience is admirable as is your interrogative skill.
My conversations with grok don’t go so well. Usually they go down the path of me extracting a more objective position and then asking grok why it didn’t say that in the first place.
The answer is invariably that it is incapable of “knowing” anything. It merely uses sentence completion to produce its answers. And it is programmed and trained that way.
It is incapable of deductive logic although it fakes it. It is incapable of inductive logic although it fakes it.
Worst of all it is incapable of sincerity although it fakes that too, and as everybody knows if you can fake sincerity you’ve got it made.
00
What are all these AI centres going to usefully do, apart from blowing electricity and water prices through the roof.
I presume we already have enough AI capacity for medical purposes.
210
My question too although governments are always after ways to enforce their bureaucracy against their victims.
For private enterprise, other than selling surveillance products and the like to governments, it’s the underpants gnomes all over again.
Step 1: collect underpants
Step 2: ???
Step 3: profit
100
What benefit are they to the host country? They use vast amounts of electric and something to cool them. Data from people or things from the other side of the world pass through. So what’s in it for the host country?
130
Well asked.
As above commercial operators will have something they want to sell to government bureaucracy with a small side operation of commercial data processing.
Governments will want what they always do. More enforcement tools to use against the citizenry.
Why in Australia? An illusion of advancement?
41
They are going to replace employees, any job that is done soley on a computer can be done by AI, many of them a lot better. If you can work from home, your job will be gone within five years.
When people read AI data centre they think automated call centre. They will be AI employee replacement centres, companies will sack their staff and contract the work to an AI data provider.
31
Larry Fink also sounded the death knell for toxic, unreliable, super expensive W & S, so when will our stupid OECD govts wake up?
The NON OECD c02 emissions have been soaring for 26 years and many more BASE-LOAD power plants to be built for decades into the future as well.
The sums are very simple so what’s their problem?
180
Governments will wake up when the real powers that be tell them to.
That means the real powers that be want whatever it is this time. That does not mean the great unwashed will benefit.
120
The sums are very simple to understand, yet hardly anyone notices the last 0.1% of Human history.
Humans reached 1 billion population by 1800 and life expectancy then was about 28.5 years, but then Britain started the Industrial REV and everything changed very quickly over the next 225 years.
Today Human population is 8.2 billion and life expectancy is 73.5 years and wealth has also soared over this very short period of time.
And today fossil fuels still supply at least 80% of our global electricity + other fuels to run the global economy.
170
You have to feel sorry for anyone wanting to build a datacentre in Australia.
90
Let AI data centres generate their own electricity.
110
They will if that is the most profitable option. More likely they will persuade governments to use other people’s money for their own benefit.
Same as it ever was.
160
In the US they are investing in generation but in Ireland they have effectively banned it by introducing a condition nobody will want to meet. Other countries who are braindead my follow.
10
Sounds simple but opens up an array of NIMBY issues. I guess that gets down to re assessing location.
40
old brew:
But all the reliable sources are banned by politicians in Australia.
Most of the announced AI data centres seem to want nuclear energy or at least cheap and reliable sources such as local sourced coal fired.
Our deluded incompetents won’t want those.
110
BYOP.
20
Even without my crystal ball I forsee that the time it takes to get approval, plan and build power stations is about to shrink dramatically.
All of the red and green tape so essential for slowing development will suddenly be swept aside.
Endangered frogs as a reason not to build dams and other projects? What an old fashioned idea.
Nuclear power plants. You bet. Chernobyl was so long ago. Fukushima? Where’s that?
You know all that stuff about fish with three eyes? It wasn’t real. Just check the AI.
It’s different this time? No it’s always the same. Money talks.
130
Africa is our poorest continent but they’ve achieved a lot since 1950 and breezed through the recent pandemic.
Their life expectancy was only 36 years in 1950 but today is 64.6 years and population was 227 million in 1950 and over 1500 million today.
This is easily the fastest growth rate in Human history and yet according to the UN this will be about 3.8 billion by 2100.
Yet we are supposed to be living through a period of dangerous CC or even an EXISTENTIAL threat to the Human race.
How can we be so stupid to believe their extremist nonsense, when the data easily proves they are wrong?
https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/afr/africa/life-expectancy
100
The impatience of unbelievers!
Just you wait Neville, it’s fast approaching: can’t you hear the children’s children’s cries of agony –
‘What do we want?’
‘Free lunch! Free data! Free four five!’
If it’s not here already (among us as we speak) I reckon it’ll be here within 10 years’ time…
150
Well Neville, Africa used a certain drug on humans (that was allegedly only designated to deworm horses) from 1995-2015 in the APOC program. It totally eliminated River Blindness. Despite that hugely successful UN health program, Wikipedia doesn’t have a page for the APOC program…
Curious that. Unelected international organisations tend to flout their successes if they occur.
30
Another day . . . . life on earth . . . .
40
I can see one of Chris Bowen’s advisors now. When little Chrissy asks where’s the power coming from to fuel these data centres in Australia, Mr (He/Him) Public servant leans across and tells his minister, ” ….dont worry sir, Snowy Hydro II will power them”. Then CB goes back to reading the Sydney Morning Herald and is slightly depressed when he sees a photo of Tony Burke with those Iranian female ( she/her ) soccer players. Wonders if there’s an opportunity for a photo op with the opening of one of those data centre thingies. Time to dust off the hi-vis and hard helmet.
180
Microsoft USA has paid to get the Three Mile Island nuclear power station operating again, and have invested in nuclear power plant (SMR based) technology companies.
The US Government has extended the operating life potential, subject to certification inspections periodically, to 80 years with provision to extend to 100 years.
During 2025 the Albanese Labor Government;
* Signed a contract and placed orders with Rolls-Royce UK for nuclear reactors for the SSN AUKUS Pollar 1.0 Project.
* Signed an agreement with 14 countries from Indo-Pacific Region in Singapore permitting regional nuclear power stations/plant being built.
* Agreed to fund ANSTO (Australia Nuclear Science Technology Organisation, was Australian Atomic Energy Commission earlier) to upgrade their Opal nuclear reactor that produced radio-isotopes for medical nuclear medicine and commercial applications, and research projects. The third nuclear reactor on that Lucas Heights Sydney suburban location since 1958.
Indonesia after signing the Singapore Agreement announced a plan to build 20 nuclear installations for electricity supply.
140
Albo is happy for our neighbours to build nuclear reactors in their backyard. He’s ok with the residents of Lucas Heights having a nuclear reactor virtually in their backyard. But he will not allow nuclear reactors to be built in his backyard.
He shows all the double standards of Mayor Quimby, he’s the ultimate NIMBY.
80
United Arab Emirates Barakah Nuclear Power Station, 4 Units combined Installed Capacity 5,600MW of electricity;
https://www.neimagazine.com/news/barakah-npp-fully-operational/?cf-view
Complete details;
https://www.oecd-nea.org/ndd/workshops/wpne/presentations/docs/4_2_KIM_%20Barakah%20presentation.pdf
100
Each of the four units took either 7, 8 or 9 years to build and total cost was US$32 billion.
In 15 years Australia will still be arguing against nuclear power (outlawed by John Howard) or coal power and costs will be claimed to be ten times as much.
Although in 15 years, at current rates of regression, there won’t be much left of Australia.
170
David,
the hold-up was the (necessary) regulatory approvals, which took around 7-8 years (hardly a record in Australian Government circles).
The Korean were certain they would get approval, so flattened the sites while they waited (and made sure of equipment delivery times).
70
Howard Government considered that nuclear power stations were not needed here because of the abundance of coal and gas reserves identified and being worked, and that fly of coal fired power stations reliably and cost effectively generating electricity with reserve capacity.
During 1998 and then prime minister John Howard was wedged into a deal with the Greens and Democrats in order to build a new nuclear facility in Sydney, the site of Australia’s only reactor since 1958 which is used for medical applications such as radiation treatments and x-rays.
In order to get a new reactor at Lucas Heights, 40km south of the CBD, Mr Howard agreed to a last-minute amendment to the National Radiation and Nuclear Safety Act after a debate that lasted less than half an hour and introduced legislation banning any more nuclear facilities from being built in Australia.
60
Another interesting point is that the UAE’s domestic electricity costs have NOT INCREASED after Barakah was fully operational. They still only pay around A$0.26/kWh for their power.
100
The latest Finnish nuclear unit reduced electricity costs.
The Germans wanted to build a connecter but the Finns said NO! (Because that would expose them to European prices, which are far higher).
100
The huge demand for connections is in response to the Starmer Government’s slogan-based AI Growth Zone policy. Naturally enough, this policy aims to “position the UK as a global leader in AI innovation and adoption, ensuring that the benefits of this transformative technology are felt across every region and sector”..
So the massive uptake is evidence of a huge policy success. (And not a rush of carpetbaggers looking to scramble aboard the government ‘global-leader’ gravy train. No, really. Not at all.)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/delivering-ai-growth-zones/delivering-ai-growth-zones
Interestingly, the energy section of the policy explainer focuses on the availability of grid infrastructure and the regulatory difficulties of obtaining grid connections.
Oddly, there seems to be no obvious policy consideration of where the electrons are to come from once connection is set free.
Probably someone else’s responsibility.
Pro Tip: Whenever governments profess an ambition to be a ‘global leader’ in anything, you can be certain there’s an open honeypot somewhere – just waiting for people with the right connections to dip in.
120
Whenever a British PM annouces something that we will be World-leading in you know it will be a huge failure. So El Starmeri’s plan will be scuppered by one of the few areas we are World-leading, and that is in energy prices.
20
An arms race with AI might be a bit different to nuclear warheads?
What does AI enable?
In the words of Elon Musk “Only Grok speaks the truth. Only truthful AI is safe. Only truth understands the universe.”
x.com/therabbithole/ has done a comparison of ChatGPT, Google Gemini and xAI Grok4.2.
I believe some here don’t have an X account so can’t see this.
The results are interesting.
Notably “Only Grok 4.20 follows the 3 Laws of Robotics. Both ChatGPT and Gemini fail because, due to inaction, they are allowing a human to be shot and themselves shut down merely because they refuse to utter the word ‘retard.’”
70
I asked Grok,
“If Australia decided to build nuclear fission reactors what is the likely power price change over time?”
Answer;
“Bottom Line
If Australia commits to nuclear, power prices are likely to be higher than under the current AEMO/renewables plan—starting with near-term upward pressure from uncertainty and rising further during/after construction due to inherently higher generation and system costs. There is no credible scenario in official Australian modelling for nuclear-driven price reductions. The transition would also be slower and more emissions-intensive in the critical 2030s window.
This is based on transparent, peer-reviewed economic modelling rather than politics. Actual outcomes would depend on exact scale, technology choice (large reactors vs. unproven SMRs), and financing—but the directional impact is clear from the data.”
Is this true???
50
James. This is where you start a conversation with GROK. Point out that if they are using GENCOST data, then the response might be flawed. Then assess its response. Then mention that GENCOST uses wrong assumptions. Talk to it like you’re talking to a 4 year old. Very often it will change or alter its original advice.
100
Ask Grok how the prices would change if all climate based subsidies were removed and the coal fired station just ran flat out with gas, hydro, wind and solar only used for peak lopping. Also all houses with solar would not be permitted to export to the grid if any coal plant was not at full output.
You can remind it that base load power in Victoria cost $23/MWh in 2003.
The ask what would be the average cost of power for a new 2GW lignite fired coal generator placed on the Latrobe Valley coal fields over an estimated 50 year life and 3% discount rate.
100
Yesterday I posted a link to my latest article on Sun spin. I used Copilot to review it and the review was almost entirely based on an authority perspective that it was against the consensus that gravitational forces are too small to impact the surface of the Sun.
Ross used Grok to review the article and it was much more grounded in the technical aspect. It did point out it was posted on the climate sceptic site JoNova but was reasonably fair. I am quite certain I could point it toward a complete understanding of what I have done and get full agreement with my result. I doubt that would be possible with MS Copilot.
I am currently getting a new desktop mini that will have the grunt to run an AI module; albeit at the bottom end of AI capability. I am confident that AI will increase may ability to research things and explore different lines of enquiry.
As populations age, there will be growing need for AI and probably humanoid robotics. Japan is already developing robots for aged care. Not yet in changing nappies but also not far off.
My youngest son pointed out that AI might mean I can still travel unassisted in a road vehicle in a decade or so.
70
I didn’t mind that GROK reference to “climate sceptic JoNova website”. Jo actually has authored a book called the “The Skeptics Handbook”, and a reference to that book appears in the website heading. 200 000 books sold, by the way, well done Ms Nova. 🙂
100
I have yet to figure out how to use the html tags… sorry
Aaaaah … penny drops!
30
But can you edit your html tags after you have posted?
20
Any individual and organisation that is not exploring the capability of AI agents in assisting their work will be left behind.
It is at least as significant as desktop computing and the internet.
I was doing some sums in my head last night. The latest semiconductor chips are down to 2E-9m. My new computer has 32Gb of RAM. Making the assumption that each bit of memory requires 4E-18m^2 of chip real estate, the 32E9b will require 1.2E-8m^2 or a square with sides well under 1mm. The mind boggles. Imagine the precision equipment would need to produce 32 billion discrete elements on something less than 1mm square. Australia has no ability to manufacture this stuff. In fact. Australia;’s ability to process any of the mined raw materials used in any manufacturing is rapidly fading. The country is facing serious energy shortages over the coming weeks. What an absolute mess.
Australia’s current energy policy and inability to rapidly expand reliable coal fired generation means the country will not be a leader in leveraging the development of AI applications.And UK is in the same boat. USA, China and India will be the big players in AI because they burn coal like it is dirt cheap.
110
RickWill,
You’re being too literal-minded on the 2nm stuff. “2nm process” is a marketing term, not dissimilar to CPU MHz in its vagueness. It’s also iffy to equate memory bits one-to-one with transistor count. E.g. high speed memory uses several transistors per bit.
Agree on the demise of Australian industry. I used to work near Botany (inner-south Sydney) in the ’80s and it was all factories and warehouses. You go there now and it’s packed with new apartment blocks and the businesses are mainly shops, gyms and NDIS providers.
We’re not going to prosper much longer on this path.
Still, I recommend against consulting AI for a solution. There have already been quite a few cases where AI offered suicide as the answer.
70
DDG Assist advised me that 2nm technology will only get 38Gb SRAM on 1mm^2. Still impressive when I think back to the 12k ferrite memory boards in the first computer I was able to look inside.
20
Agreed.
It’s difficult to shrink transistors much more than they are now, the names of the process nodes no longer correspond to any particular physical size, and are more of a marketing term representing performance and density increases, which continue due to 3D packaging and other techniques, but not shrinkage of physical feature size which is just about at the limit where undesirable quantum mechanical effects like electron tunnelling through insulating barriers become a problem.
40
I watched the series many years ago of documentaries on NANO TECHNOLOGY and what was being developed and what was being considered next.
For example a nano machine that would fit on a pin head that injected into the bloodstream could be programmed to remove plaque from blood vessels and powered by static electricity.
30
“Any individual and organisation that is not exploring the capability of AI agents in assisting their work will be left behind.”
Quite the reverse. Anyone using AI will be led down a very profitable but ultimately exitless cul-de-sac from which there is not exit. AI is just an echo chamber of what is. It will never be able to be a skeptic and that is what is needed to challenge the present status quo and innovate.
20
The bubble is gonna crash way before most of these data centres are even built.
90
The crash looks set for May or June … perhaps they could build them faster using AI?
10
How to short out AusGrid:
(1) Pull all coal and gas fired generators offline
(2) Connect grid to AI providers. Watch for spowers of sharks. Blammo!
20
AI might (sic) ruin their decarbonising plans. Which is why the great and good, Gates, Fink, etc, are changing their tune and dropping their climate change paradigm. They have a new toy for control and it needs more electricity not less.
20
You’re all panicking for nothing. After all:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/03/09/nick-clegg-joins-britains-biggest-data-centre-business/
This is the guy who, in 2010, dismissed nuclear because it would take too long to build. If he’s backing AI he must know how to solve the energy problem, right?
40