Big Tech's A.I. Data Centers Are Driving Up Electricity Bills for Everyone

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/business/energy-environment/ai-data-centers-electricity-costs.html

28•moneycantbuy•2h ago

Comments

grafmax•1h ago

Not just bills. These data centers, a major driver of new energy use, are contributing to climate change. Sadly it seems to be another way for large companies to offload externalities onto the public.

kolinko•33m ago

Are they? IIRC MS & Google were running on carbon neutral sources.

rambojohnson•31m ago

Carbon neutrality doesn’t refill a drained reservoir used to cool off these machines. Running your servers on wind power doesn’t make the millions of gallons they’re dumping into cooling systems any less gone.

rambojohnson•32m ago

To say nothing of the exorbitant amount of water used to cool these machines, we’re on track to face a water shortage crisis long before any other climate change impact.

arghwhat•14m ago

Water availability is a regional climate change impact, which does not apply everywhere.

It's very stupid to evaporate potable water on purpose in dry regions, but note that many numbers in this area are highly sensationalized by taking e.g. the maximum design capacity of the cooling system instead of the actual load, and that there are several other cooling solutions. Most proper facts die tragic deaths before they make it to mainstream news media. :/

lelandbatey•58m ago

https://archive.is/YOo1H

brotchie•56m ago

But the vast majority of my $500+ a month PG&E bill is for transmission, not generation.

prasadjoglekar•52m ago

And according TFA, those poles and wires for transmission are a large part of the increase in costs that are forecasted.

Ideally, the folks who request the new plants and transmission lines pay for them, but it appears tech cos are attempting to pass the transmission cost burden onto residential consumers.

taeric•43m ago

500 a month sounds steep. I'm assuming you live somewhere that requires AC every day?

The article referred to driving prices up from 2020 due to making the infrastructure stronger by as much as 30%. Which, yeah, about 150ish of your bill.

It is less clear on how much it will need to go up because of increased demand? The prediction is 8%. Which, again, not nothing. But it is telling that there is more increase from infrastructure than there is generation? I don't know that that will change?

buckle8017•42m ago

this is nonsense and the author even admits it

> In the coming years, artificial intelligence could turbocharge those increases

the cost of residential power is going up because of the shift away from natural gas towards solar

failing to admit this or worse lying about it is not going to actually help long term

kolinko•32m ago

what? solar is cheaper than natural gas.

mensetmanusman•29m ago

Solar+battery is the proper comparison.

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