“If we can have energy in abundance and at low cost, and if we can make artificial intelligence available to everyone, the world will progress.” He said it Sam Altmani.e. the father of the intelligent chatbot ChatGpt as well as founder of the company that is developing it, OpenAi. But what would be low-cost and non-polluting energy? The solution, according to the entrepreneur and others, is only one: nuclear energy. For this reason, Altman himself invested 375 million dollars in the startup Helion Energya company aiming for nuclear fusion. The problem, however, remains complexity. Building a controlled fusion reactor requires a long construction time, at least 10 years.
However, the path is clear. In fact, AI needs a lot of energy to cool data centers and to function. Obviously the owner of OpenAia company expected to be worth at least $150 billion, is very optimistic about nuclear power: «This technology will play an important role in our future». And he also makes a promise: “By 2050 I hope that we will no longer burn coal globally.” Altmanhowever, is not alone in this race for clean energy. There are Microsoft, Amazon and other Big Techs that are showing a strong interest in the atom, driven by the hunger for energy of data centers and, indeed, of Artificial Intelligence. Furthermore, these “giants” have made commitments to reduce their emissions to zero starting from 2030. And given that renewable sources can only partially cover the growing demand, due to the irregularity of production linked to the sun or wind, nuclear , a low-emission source that produces electricity at any time of the day, is considered the solution to the dilemma.
Microsoft, Amazon and Google are already insatiable customers of energy to run their immense data centers, the physical location that contains the computing infrastructure required by IT systems, such as servers, data storage units and networking equipment. The multinational of Jeff Bezos has just struck a deal in Pennsylvania with a nearby nuclear power plant so that energy for its new data center will be purchased directly from the plant. The agreement, stipulated with Talen Energy for 950 megawatts of electricity, that’s worth $650 million a year. Microsoftfor his part, does things big and, again in Pennsylvania, he even asked Constellation Energy to reactivate the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, which in 1979 was the scene of the most serious nuclear accident in the history of the United States. The plant was about to be shut down, but the company led by Satya Nadella wants to renovate it, given that the majority of Americans are now in favor of the atom. It is said that the agreement, lasting 20 years, provides for an annual supply of 835 megawatts, enough to power around 700 thousand homes, energy that will be used by the Redmond giant to satisfy its energy needs attributable precisely to artificial intelligence. The investment to restart the reactor, still of an old concept, is equal to 1.6 billion dollars with 3,400 new direct and indirect jobs and after the announcement of the agreement Constellation saw its shares skyrocket on the stock market by 13 percent.
Also Google focuses a lot on nuclear power. The CEO announced it Sundar Pichai visiting Tokyo. The manager confirms that it is the only source of electricity capable of combining the enormous needs of AI with the need to have energy with low CO2 emissions. Moreover, in 2023, greenhouse gas emissions caused by Google’s data centers were 48 percent higher than in 2019. The energy requirements of AI are therefore impressive: according to some estimates, by 2026 the entire sector could require up to over a thousand terawatt hours per year. A monstrous figure, if we consider that in Italy total energy consumption is around 300 terawatts. Such demand not only has a cost, but is also capable of influencing the electricity market at a local level with a consequent increase in prices. This makes it increasingly complex to finance projects based on Artificial Intelligence while on the green front, companies that manage data centers have promised to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to zero within a few years.
Microsoft has set itself even more ambitious goals, namely that of removing more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than it produces. The problem is that by 2030 the demand for electricity could explode up to +166 percent, despite the constant improvement in the efficiency of the chips that power artificial intelligence and which have made the success of Nvidia shares on the stock market. It is therefore not surprising that nuclear energy is seen as a sustainable solution, but the construction of the relevant newly designed power plants takes a very long time and this is why companies are pushing to reactivate existing plants as well. Furthermore, the growing use of AI is already leading to a greater use of fossil fuels for energy production to the point that in the USA Maryland, Missouri and West Virginia are delaying the closure of coal plants, while administration Biden decided to give incentives to keep existing nuclear reactors active.
And in Italy, which banned nuclear power plants in the 1987 referendum, what will happen? According to a recent survey by the SWG institute, those in favor of the use of new nuclear technologies fluctuate between 49 and 55 percent and the most inclined are those under 55 for whom the percentage even rises to 63 percent.. Even in our country, therefore, the wind is changing.
