PHOENIX — As those in the Valley try to keep their homes cool, Arizona's largest utility warns we could hit a new record peak for energy use this summer.
But that is not due to household usage. APS reports households used 5 percent less energy last year than they did three years before. Home energy use is decreasing due to efficiency programs, better home appliances and solar energy usage.
The biggest culprit for higher demand in recent years is energy-sapping data centers being built across the state.
The giant warehouses store computers that are connected to the internet. The state has 79 data centers and counting, according to Data Center Map.
Sarah Florini of ASU’s Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics studies technology and energy. Florini says artificial intelligence (AI) has dramatically increased energy demand.
“For example, the new AI-enabled Google search takes ten times as much energy as the original Google search, and that energy is coming from somewhere,” Florini said.
Google reported last week its greenhouse gas emissions have surged 48 percent since 2019, blaming data centers and supply chain emissions.
Google and Microsoft are both building new data centers or adding to existing ones in the Valley.
“Because land is cheap in Arizona, relatively speaking, and because we have a stable climate, we are a desirable location for data centers,” Florini said. “We are going to get more and more of them. And it is going to be putting a strain on our power grid.”
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