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Elevate Magazine
July 4, 2024

Google Grapples with Surging Emissions from AI-Fuelled Data Centres

google grapples

Google’s integration of artificial intelligence into its primary products has led to a significant, behind-the-scenes issue—the systems required to support these AI tools have drastically increased the company’s greenhouse gas emissions.

AI systems demand a large number of computers to operate. The data centres essential for running these systems, which are essentially massive warehouses filled with powerful computing equipment, consume enormous amounts of energy to process data and manage the heat generated by all these machines. This highlights the critical need for energy conservation and improved efficiency in these operations.

As a result, Google’s greenhouse gas emissions have surged by 48% since 2019, according to the company’s latest annual environmental report. The tech giant attributed this rise primarily to “increased data centre energy consumption and supply chain emissions,” contributing to increased air pollution and negatively impacting the atmosphere.

Sustainability Goals and Investment in AI

Now, Google describes its goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030 as “extremely ambitious,” acknowledging that this undertaking is likely to be influenced by “the uncertainty around the future environmental impact of AI, which is complex and difficult to predict.” In simpler terms, the company’s sustainability efforts, which once included the slogan “don’t be evil” in its code of conduct, have become more complicated due to AI, significantly affecting its carbon footprint.

Like its tech competitors, Google has heavily invested in AI, which is seen as the next significant tech revolution poised to change our way of life, work, and information consumption. The company has integrated its Gemini generative AI technology into key products such as Search and Google Assistant, with CEO Sundar Pichai declaring Google an “AI-first company.

Energy-Intensive Data Centres

However, AI has a significant drawback—the energy-intensive data centres that Google and other major tech companies are currently spending billions of dollars each quarter to expand in support of their AI ambitions. This expansion underscores the importance of energy conservation and efficiency.

To sum up the increased demands of AI models compared to traditional computing systems, the International Energy Agency estimates that a Google search query requires an average of 0.3 watt-hours of electricity, while a ChatGPT request typically uses about 2.9 watt-hours. An October study by Dutch researcher Alex de Vries noted that should Google’s AI systems reach full-scale adoption using the current hardware and software, their annual electricity consumption could match that of the entire country of Ireland.

Challenges in Reducing Emissions

As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute, and the emissions associated with the expected increases in our technical infrastructure investment,” Google noted in its report published on Monday.

The company also mentioned that data centre electricity consumption is currently increasing faster than it can introduce carbon-free electricity sources, which is critical for minimising its carbon footprint and mitigating its impact on the atmosphere.

Google expects its total greenhouse gas emissions to continue rising before they start to decline as the company invests in clean energy sources like wind and geothermal to power its data centres. This commitment to clean energy is essential for the company’s long-term energy conservation strategy.

The substantial amounts of water used as coolant to prevent data centres from overheating also pose a sustainability challenge. Google aims to replenish 120% of the freshwater it consumes in its offices and data centres by 2030. Last year, it managed to replenish just 18% of that water, although this was a significant increase from 6% the previous year. Efficient water use and replenishment are vital for environmental health.

Combating Climate Change

In addition to these challenges, Google is exploring ways to use AI to combat climate change. For example, a 2019 project by Google DeepMind trained an AI model on weather forecasts and historical wind turbine data to predict wind power availability, thereby increasing the value of this renewable energy source for wind farmers. The company has also used AI to recommend more fuel-efficient routes to drivers using Google Maps, contributing to reduced air pollution and a smaller carbon footprint.

We know that scaling AI and using it to accelerate climate action is just as crucial as addressing the environmental impact associated with it,” Google stated in the report.