AI datacenters putting zero emissions promises out of reach
The datacenter industry looks set for a turbulent 2025 as AI growth threatens to trump sustainability commitments and authorities are likely to see growing public hostility to new projects.
These findings come via the latest report from Uptime Institute, which offers predictions for the year ahead based on its research into the latest developments and challenges shaping the industry.
Perhaps not surprisingly, all five predictions relate to the huge growth in demand for more and more datacenters to support the anticipated boom in AI and associated cloud services.
Uptime's first forecast is that server farms will become more controversial, as their resource use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions lead to greater local opposition over new builds, while governments are more concerned with reaping any economic benefits.
The Reg has extensively covered the dire warnings for datacenter energy consumption resulting from AI, with analyst Gartner recently saying this could expand 160 percent over the next two years. Datacenters' use of water and land are other bones of contention, which in combination with their reliance on tax breaks and the limited number of local jobs they deliver, will see them face growing opposition from local residents and environmental groups.
