NEW YORK: Governments around the world are looking for ways to speed up data centres’ (DC) connections to local power grids, seeking to curb a growing reliance on on-site natural gas plants that threatens to increase emissions from the boom in artificial intelligence, according to BloombergNEF.
DC developers are increasingly turning to so-called behind-the-metre power generation to bypass years-long waits for grid connections and get their facilities running sooner.
Those systems typically rely on natural gas, potentially reversing years of progress in cutting emissions from electricity generation.
A report published by BloombergNEF yesterday examined proposed policy efforts in the United States, Europe and Asia to accelerate grid connections and limit the environmental impact of DC growth.
“Powering DCs via the grid today would result in lower carbon dioxide emissions than using on-site gas in the United States and Europe,” the report’s authors wrote. — Bloomberg
