SRF reports two things at the same time:

  • Data centres already consume 6–8% of Switzerland’s electricity today, with 10–15% by 2030 considered realistic.

  • At the same time, electricity producers warn of a supply gap by 2050 (VSE index: 69 out of 100 points).

Now asked in a typically Bünzli way:

  • If electricity is going to become scarce in the future, why are we prioritising data centres and AI of all things?

Not hospitals, not public transport, not households – but server halls for AI brainrot, advertising and content spam?

  • Who bears the risk?

The profits are private, while grid expansion, the winter gap and supply security are paid for by all of us.

  • Why are there rules for everything – except here?

Minergie standards for buildings, regulations for heating systems, CO₂ targets everywhere.
But data centres are allowed to keep growing, while producers simultaneously warn of electricity shortages.

Serious question:

Is it really sensible, in the face of foreseeable electricity scarcity, to reserve a double-digit percentage of our electricity supply for this – or do we finally need clear priorities?

Salopp, I would suggest a separate power grid for data centres, including their own power plants (as with SBB), staggered according to priority in the event of a power failure. Hospital records, etc. would take priority over AI generation for Facebook, etc.

Sources:

https://www.srf.ch/news/dialog/energie-fuer-die-digitale-welt-hohe-dichte-an-rechenzentren-bringt-schweizer-stromnetz-ans-limit

https://www.srf.ch/news/wirtschaft/geht-uns-der-strom-aus-stromproduzenten-warnen-vor-versorgungsluecke-bis-2050



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BezugssystemCH1903

7 comments

  1. Because the amount of power consumed by AI is completely misrepresented in the media due to the hype and we simply need these datacenters for our interconnected world, regardless of AI.

  2. Let’s close some more powerplants, what can possibly go wrong?

  3. More cheaper electricity is good. Electricty should not be a scarce resource. We should start building new dams and power plants now.

  4. In the last 20 years the power consumption in switzerland has stayed essentially flat. In the same time, the population grew by 20%, GDP per person also grew about 20% and we have started electrifying many things that previously were powered by other energy sources (mainly fossil fuels). So even though we got wealthier and technology progressed (with all the data centers that come with it), higher efficiency more than made up for this.

  6. For house insulation, you can do the same work with less energy. For datacenters you can have datacenters or not have them. That’s the difference.

    Also datacenters are very energy efficient all things considered. Paying extra electricity will eat the margins very quickly, so there is a strong incentive to be efficient and the scale to make optimizations worthwhile.

    Lastly, if you don’t build them in Switzerland, you will need to depend on datacenters in other countries. The computing needs are not going to vanish.

    This is an opportunity to build more power generation.

  7. The Green ppl. Say there is no worry we can cover them with wind and sunny so pls silent Volk the party spoke.

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