Google's recent data reveals the side effects brought by the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) technology application to Silicon Valley giants: over the past five years, greenhouse gas emissions from Google have surged 48% due to the expansion of data centers supporting AI systems.
On Tuesday, July 2, US Eastern Time, Google's annual environmental report showed that in 2023, last year, Google's polluting emissions reached 14.3 million tons of carbon equivalent, an increase of 48% compared to the baseline level in 2019, and an increase of 13% last year. Last year, Google's energy-related emissions from data center power consumption increased by 37%, accounting for one quarter of the company's total greenhouse gas emissions, and the largest proportion, 75%, of supply chain emissions increased by 8% last year.
The report states that the growth of carbon emissions last year highlights the challenge of reducing carbon emissions while investing in large language models (LLMs) and related applications and infrastructure construction. The report acknowledges that "the future impact of AI on the environment" is "complex and difficult to predict". The report predicts that supply chain emissions will continue to grow in the near future as AI system infrastructure requirements increase.
The above report on Tuesday implies that the electricity demand generated by AI systems poses a threat to Google's ability to achieve its decarbonization goals. Google previously committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, both directly and indirectly, by 2030, with its electricity grid running entirely on carbon-free energy 24 hours a day. However, Tuesday's report warned that last year, the termination of some renewable energy projects resulted in a reduction in the amount of renewable energy acquired by Google.
Media reports pointed out that Silicon Valley giants Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have announced plans to invest billions of dollars in the AI field, which has raised concerns among climate experts about the negative impact of power-hungry tools and systems on the environment.
Kate Brandt, Google's Chief Sustainability Officer, said in the report that Google is still committed to achieving its 2030 goals but emphasized that the goal is "extremely ambitious". Brandt said: "We do anticipate that our emissions will continue to rise before we fall back to our goals." She also said that Google is "working very hard" to reduce emissions, including signing clean energy agreements, and that AI provides "great opportunities" to address climate issues.
Earlier this week, Wall Street news mentioned that with the rapid development of AI technology, especially the rise of LLM and generative AI, the demand for electricity by technology companies is skyrocketing, and they are competing for nuclear power resources. About a third of US nuclear power plant owners are in talks with tech companies to provide power for new data centers. Among them, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is close to reaching a direct power supply agreement with Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear power plant operator in the United States. In March of this year, AWS also acquired a nuclear power-driven data center in Pennsylvania for $650 million.
Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, these Silicon Valley giants have announced plans to invest billions of dollars in the AI field, which has raised concerns among climate experts about the negative impact of power-hungry tools and systems on the environment.
This kind of nuclear power-technology giant partnership has sparked controversy in many parts of the United States. On the one hand, the combination of nuclear power and data centers can match the most reliable electricity in the grid with the wealthiest customers, and this new "plant-grid integration" arrangement may greatly accelerate the construction speed of data centers, as almost no new grid infrastructure is needed. Data centers may also avoid paying transmission and distribution costs that occupy a large portion of electricity bills. On the other hand, such power supply agreements also mean that tech companies are not meeting their skyrocketing power demands by adding new green energy, but are actually transferring existing power resources. Data centers may draw stable generating resources from the grid, exacerbating the increasingly severe power reliability problems in many parts of the United States and driving up prices.
Consumer advocates in Pennsylvania, such as Patrick Cicero, expressed concern about Amazon's acquisition transaction in the state. He believes that if the bulk consumer of electricity (tech companies) gets priority, it could trigger cost and reliability issues. At present, it is unclear whether the state has regulatory authority to intervene in such transactions.