Synthetic intelligence is reworking almost each sector of society— medication, transportation, training, finance, and the way forward for work. President Trump has made it clear that he desires the USA to dominate this technological revolution. Gov. Maura Healey, recognizing each the chance and the urgency, has set an bold aim: to make Massachusetts the perfect state for AI growth. With our universities, innovators, and expert workforce, the Commonwealth is nicely positioned to steer.
However Massachusetts can not lead the AI future with out confronting a easy, typically ignored fact: AI shouldn’t be solely a software program revolution, it’s an vitality and water revolution. The information facilities powering synthetic intelligence are monumental industrial amenities that devour large quantities of electrical energy and water. Until the Commonwealth acts now, these calls for might overwhelm the grid, drive up electrical energy charges, pressure native water provides, and impose new burdens on communities which have traditionally borne the best environmental harms.
If we need to lead the AI period, we should get our vitality coverage, our environmental protections, and our regulatory framework proper.
In keeping with the Brookings Establishment, U.S. information facilities already consumed about 4.4% of all U.S. electrical energy in 2023, and that share is rising. Researchers on the Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Laboratory mission annual progress of roughly 6.7 to 12% in U.S. data-center electrical energy use by 2028 — pushed largely by AI workloads.
Brookings additional notes that U.S. information facilities might require round 35 gigawatts of electrical energy by 2030 — roughly equal to the ability utilized by each dwelling in New England.
In the meantime, some next-generation AI amenities might devour electrical energy at ranges approaching these of a mid-sized American metropolis. The precise numbers will fluctuate with design and effectivity, however the magnitude of demand is now not in dispute.
But the federal vitality technique stays out of sync with the vitality calls for of AI. Whereas the administration pushes for renewed fossil-fuel manufacturing, the economics inform a distinct story. Clear vitality is now the most affordable type of new electrical energy era in lots of components of the nation. Photo voltaic and wind tasks typically produce electrical energy for a lot lower than coal or new natural-gas vegetation. As a result of renewables don’t depend on gasoline, their prices stay secure even when demand rises — a pointy distinction to fossil fuels, which turn out to be costlier as consumption will increase. Massachusetts, which already faces a few of the highest electrical energy costs within the nation, can not construct a aggressive AI ecosystem on an costly and more and more constrained fossil-heavy grid.
Power, nonetheless, is simply a part of the image. Water is rising because the extra fast constraint — and a far larger threat for communities. Information facilities use monumental volumes of water for cooling. The Brookings report paperwork amenities consuming as a lot as 500,000 gallons of water per day, and notes that some jurisdictions have already raised water charges considerably to accommodate new data-center hundreds; in a single Georgia county, charges elevated by 33%.
Massachusetts shouldn’t be immune to those pressures. Many communities already face seasonal water restrictions and confused aquifers. Introducing main industrial water customers into communities with restricted drinking-water capability might pressure residents to compete straight with data-center operators for a finite useful resource. Because the AI Information Middle Environmental Justice Coverage Suggestions warns, with out robust regulation, information facilities can impose cumulative environmental and public-health harms that disproportionately have an effect on low-income and environmental-justice neighborhoods. These harms embody noise, air air pollution from diesel backup turbines, elevated land conversion, and new strains on native water methods.
This brings us to the query: Who pays for the infrastructure wanted to help the AI growth?
Information facilities require large upgrades to {the electrical} grid, together with new transmission strains, expanded substations, transformers, feeder strains, and grid-modernization investments. Utilities, wanting to promote giant volumes of electrical energy to profitable industrial clients, might try and shift these prices onto ratepayers except the Commonwealth intervenes.
The environmental justice suggestions are unequivocal: information facilities should pay 100% of the prices related to interconnection, devoted transmission infrastructure, and any system upgrades wanted solely to help their operations. In addition they name for full transparency round any particular electrical energy charges, reductions, or contracts that might shift prices onto residents.
A number of different states have struggled with this difficulty. In some areas, electrical energy costs have risen partially as a result of data-center-related infrastructure prices have been unfold throughout the complete buyer base. Massachusetts can not repeat that mistake. Defending ratepayers should be one in every of Gov. Healey’s highest priorities.
To try this, the Commonwealth should undertake a complete regulatory framework governing data-center siting, environmental assessment, water use, and price allocation. Siting choices needs to be grounded in rigorous environmental impression assessments that take into account cumulative impacts and prioritize redevelopment of present industrial websites over greenfields or environmentally delicate areas. Communities should have a significant position in these choices, together with enforceable neighborhood advantages agreements that guarantee native residents share within the financial worth created.
The Commonwealth is nicely positioned to turn out to be the nationwide chief in AI growth. However management requires foresight. It requires a agency dedication to making sure that working households and environmental-justice communities don’t subsidize the infrastructure wanted for company AI enlargement. And it requires recognizing that clear vitality, water stewardship, and fairness should not obstacles to innovation — they’re the muse of sustainable innovation.
Ed Gaskin is Govt Director of Larger Grove Corridor Important Streets and founding father of Sunday Celebrations
