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According to information from IT House on 4 June, according to Reuters, United Nations researchers on Wednesday, local time, have indicated that the data centre has continued to expand, driven by a surge in artificial intelligence demand, and that it is expected to double its electricity and water consumption by 2030.

In a report, the UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health warns that if Governments ignore the rising environmental costs of artificial intelligence, rapid deployment of artificial intelligence can also exacerbate land resource scarcity and generate huge amounts of electronic waste.

IT House noted that last year the global data centre consumed 448 tawa hours of electricity, more than the total national electricity use in Saudi Arabia, with artificial intelligence computing power consumption accounting for one fifth of total electricity consumption.

Data centres consumed 4.5 trillion litres of water over the same period, sufficient to meet the water needs of more than 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, while carbon dioxide emissions reached 189 million tons.

The Director of the Institute and lead author of the report, Kavi Madani, stated: “Public discussion tends to see artificial intelligence only as a software product, but artificial intelligence cannot be supported by physical infrastructure: it covers data centres, power generation facilities, cooling systems, transmission networks, chips, mineral resources, land and water resources.”

The report predicts that annual electricity consumption in the global data centre will double to 945 watt-hours in 2030, roughly equivalent to the national electricity use in Japan, by which time the share of artificial intelligence will rise to 40 per cent; water consumption is expected to increase to 9.3 trillion litres and CO2 emissions to 3.99 billion tons.

In terms of size, the data centre will expand from 6900 square kilometres last year to more than 14500 square kilometres in 2030.

While artificial intelligence can improve energy efficiency by optimizing power grids and reducing resource depletion, overall hydropower demand is expected to continue to rise in the broader context of competition between countries and businesses for new computing facilities.

Madani added: “At the moment, the industry is growing faster than ever before, and the most basic norms of sustainable development are masked. Globally, artificial intelligence does not completely deplete water and electricity, but in some regions, the expansion of data centres without integrated planning can conflict with local stress on resource supply and demand. It is for this reason that scientific planning is needed to achieve good development before the relevant infrastructure is landed and resource packages are consolidated.”

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