AI will consume about 40 gigawatts of the projected 96 GW in global power demand from data centers, up from a total demand of 49 GW in 2023. This energy use generates a lot of heat and requires a lot of water to cool down data servers.
But why can't AI simply adjust its energy usage in real-time also? Bitcoin miners’ energy usage has a unique aspect compared to AI data centers. The Bitcoin network is a constant customer that is not adversely affected by miners throttling down or turning off their equipment. However, if an AI data center turns off some of its servers to throttle down AI compute, customers are adversely affected.
By increasing their activity during off-peak hours, Bitcoin miners consume this surplus of excess electricity generated from wind energy that would otherwise remain unused due to lack of demand during these periods. Their energy consumption stabilizes the delicate balance between electricity supply and demand and helps prevent the grid from becoming overloaded, which can lead to disruptions such as blackouts.