CHINA’S HEAD START IN ENERGY
A GPT-4 model can use up to 463,269 megawatt-hours of electricity per year, according to research by academics at the University of Rhode Island, University of Tunis and Providence College. That is more than the annual energy consumption of more than 35,000 US homes.
This demand reflects the expanding share of AI workloads in data centre electricity consumption. Global use of electricity by data centres is projected to more than double by 2030, and will reach about 1,800 terawatt-hours by 2040, enough to power 150 million US homes for a year, according to Rystad Energy.
As a result, the price and availability of power will increasingly determine the pace of AI progress. Here, China has a head start. Last year, it added a record amount of renewable energy capacity, mostly from new solar and wind installations. Solar power alone expanded by about 277 gigawatts, while wind contributed about 80GW, bringing total new renewable capacity to more than 356GW, far exceeding total capacity in the US.
This renewable surge is part of a bigger plan. Beijing has linked industrial policy to its efforts to reinforce the national grid, developing large solar projects in Inner Mongolia, expanding hydropower in Sichuan and building high-voltage transmission lines to move cheaper inland electricity to coastal demand centres.
Local authorities are also granting preferential electricity rates to companies such as Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance to boost local AI computing. These subsidies help to offset the lower efficiency of domestic chips from Huawei, allowing China to train AI models at a lower overall cost.
Meanwhile, in the US, wholesale electricity costs have been rising, with prices today as much as 267 per cent higher than five years ago in areas near data centres. But investment in many types of renewable projects, including large-scale wind and solar, fell in the US during the first half of the year, reflecting policy shifts and regulatory uncertainty. The White House has also detailed an executive order ending subsidies for wind and solar power.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/ai-race-china-us-chips-renewable-energy-supply-5462271
