The Hidden Energy Behind Every Click

Have you ever wondered how much energy it takes for Google to produce answers to our searches with lightning speed and accuracy? What about ChatGPT?

This was me a couple of days ago, and it led me down a rabbit hole of trying to understand the infrastructure behind every search, click, or tap that we make in our day-to-day activities.

Every Click Has a Cost

One can argue that we are very much spoiled, as we do not understand the energy and power that goes behind every move we make. Because our fast portable supercomputers remain cool as they perform each mind-boggling task we give them, it can be very easy to forget the energy flowing behind them.

For example, one hour of Netflix streaming doesn’t take that much energy, but when scaled up and multiplied by hundreds of millions of users, then the number becomes staggering.

The demand is expected to grow exponentially with the advent of AI. It’s projected that AI-driven workloads would account for 35-50% of all data centre power usage. Running a large AI model like ChatGPT comes with its own usage, as energy is required to operate and train the model to perform its task dutifully.

It’s estimated that a ChatGPT search consumes 10 times more energy than a Google search. Isn’t that crazy?

Global data centres account for about 1.5% of the total electricity consumption – that number is expected to double by 2030.  Data centres, if you haven’t heard of them by now, are the physical facilities that house computing and storage resources, such as servers, storage systems, and networking equipment. The big data centres of North America are located in clusters, often in specific regions like Northern Virginia, Silicon Valley, and other populated areas.

Where Does the Power Come From?

When you send a text, play a video, or ask ChatGPT a question, you are activating energy-hungry computers all drawing power from different sources. But the question is, where does all this power come from?

The electricity driving these computers doesn’t just appear out of thin air; it comes from somewhere, and in Canada, that varies by province:

• British Columbia, for example, uses hydroelectric power
• Alberta mainly uses natural gas
• Ontario and New Brunswick both use a mix of nuclear, hydro, and other sources

As the electricity demand grows, the key question to be asked is this: can our grids handle the surge of AI, cloud computing, and others?

It’s been estimated that global data centre demand could reach nearly 1000TWh by 2030, which is equivalent to the annual electricity use of Japan. With this type of growth expected, we will require new energy projects that are fast, reliable, and more powerful than ever before.

That means more generation projects (hydro, nuclear, oil and gas production), more transformers and substations, and more transmission lines to get electricity to an ever-growing industrial (and residential) customer base.

Canada & AI Energy Demand

The hidden story behind all this exceeds bytes and megawatts; it is about how we can prepare for the next industrial shift. The responsibility of Canada’s digital future rests solely on the strength of its energy infrastructure.

To attract high-tech investments, we need affordable, abundant, and reliable electricity, which can only be provided with significant investments in energy projects.

The approval of these major energy projects would not just be a step in the right direction; it would be the catalyst to ensuring that we secure our future in this digital age. Our online habits, job growth, and national competitiveness all depend on keeping the lights on in a digital age. In Alberta, efforts have been made as the data centre industry remains a focal point of the Alberta Government’s economic diversification strategy.

The Challenge Ahead

Individually, our energy use may seem small, but every click, tap, and scroll carries a current. As our lives become more digital, our dependence and reliance on electricity deepens. We should not see this as a challenge, but rather an opportunity to define the future we want. Now it’s up to us to determine how we’ll power that future responsibly.

The energy behind every click isn’t hidden; it’s ever-present, waiting for us to look closer.