/dev/sustainability

AI's power problem: the slow grid

Near term, expect more self-provisioned power while transmission and substations catch up. Long term, nuclear is a perfect fit for data centers.

Oct 13 • 

David Mytton

August 2025

The environmental impact of Google Gemini AI text prompts

Google has published the first breakdown of an in-production, global fleet-level AI system serving real queries. Results show per text prompt energy…

Aug 23 • 

David Mytton

1

Mistral's environmental impact

Lifecycle analysis of Mistral's Large 2 foundation model shows its carbon footprint, water consumption, and resource depletion is probably equivalent to…

Aug 17 • 

David Mytton

June 2025

ChatGPT energy usage is 0.34 Wh per query

Now we have a number for AI energy consumption, what can we use it for? What else do we need to know for it to be useful?

Jun 12 • 

David Mytton

3

2

March 2025

Model, estimate or measure? What matters in video energy use

Analyzing the difference between energy and power estimates from software models vs a hardware analyzer in video communications.

Mar 16 • 

David Mytton

1

Overestimating data center public health costs

Energy & carbon aren’t the only environmental impacts of computing, but are the public health impacts overstated?

Mar 1 • 

David Mytton

7

February 2025

If only data centers would participate in demand response

Even for AI training workloads, data center demand response remains an academic exercise - intriguing but impractical.

Feb 22 • 

David Mytton

4

1

How useful is GPU manufacturer TDP for estimating AI workload energy?

Manufacturer provided Thermal Design Power (TDP) figures are often used to estimate energy consumption of GPU AI workloads, but how useful are they?

Feb 13 • 

David Mytton

2

1

Data center energy and AI in 2025

Global data center energy consumption was 240-340 TWh in 2022, but AI is now a major driver of future projections. An update on the 2024 US Data Center…

Feb 9 • 

David Mytton

4

1

June 2024

Network energy use not directly proportional to data volume

It is commonly assumed that data volume and network energy consumption are directly proportional, a notion perpetuated by numerous studies and media…

Jun 24, 2024 • 

David Mytton

January 2024

Expect more overestimates of AI energy consumption

We’ve started to see AI doomerism spread to predictions of the vast quantity of energy AI is undoubtably going to consume.

Jan 2, 2024 • 

David Mytton

4

1

July 2023

Paper Notes - ICT sector electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions 2020

An updated look at the total electricity consumption and associated GHG emissions for the ICT sector in 2020. Paper notes on Malmodin et al. (2023).

Jul 22, 2023 • 

David Mytton