Powering data centers sustainably in an AI world

Artificial Intelligence (AI) - Friend or Foe of Sustainable Data Centers?

Data centers are getting bigger, denser, and more power-hungry than ever. The rapid emergence and growth of artificial intelligence (AI) is only serving to accelerate this process. However, AI could also be an enormously powerful tool to improve the energy efficiency of data centers, enabling them to operate far more sustainably than they do today. This is creating a kind of AI energy infrastructure paradox, posing the question - is AI a friend or foe of data centers' sustainability?

In this Technical Brief, Hitachi Energy explores the factors that are driving the rapid growth in data center energy demand, steps being taken to mitigate fast-growing power consumption trends, and the role that AI could play in the future evolution of both data center management and the clean energy transition.