Synthetic intelligence is remodeling almost each sector of society— medication, transportation, training, finance, and the way forward for work. President Trump has made it clear that he desires america to dominate this technological revolution. Gov. Maura Healey, recognizing each the chance and the urgency, has set an bold aim: to make Massachusetts the very best state for AI growth. With our universities, innovators, and expert workforce, the Commonwealth is properly positioned to guide.
However Massachusetts can’t lead the AI future with out confronting a easy, typically missed reality: AI shouldn’t be solely a software program revolution, it’s an vitality and water revolution. The info facilities powering synthetic intelligence are huge industrial services 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 wish to lead the AI period, we should get our vitality coverage, our environmental protections, and our regulatory framework proper.
In line 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 challenge annual development of roughly 6.7 to 12% in U.S. data-center electrical energy use via 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 facility utilized by each dwelling in New England.
In the meantime, some next-generation AI services might devour electrical energy at ranges approaching these of a mid-sized American metropolis. The precise numbers will differ with design and effectivity, however the magnitude of demand is 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 special 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 much lower than coal or new natural-gas crops. As a result of renewables don’t depend on gas, their prices stay secure even when demand rises — a pointy distinction to fossil fuels, which develop into dearer as consumption will increase. Massachusetts, which already faces among the highest electrical energy costs within the nation, can’t construct a aggressive AI ecosystem on an costly and more and more constrained fossil-heavy grid.
Vitality, nonetheless, is simply a part of the image. Water is rising because the extra rapid constraint — and a far larger threat for communities. Information facilities use huge volumes of water for cooling. The Brookings report paperwork services 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 power residents to compete instantly with data-center operators for a finite useful resource. Because the AI Information Heart 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 embrace noise, air air pollution from diesel backup turbines, elevated land conversion, and new strains on native water techniques.
This brings us to the query: Who pays for the infrastructure wanted to assist 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 business prospects, 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 assist 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 partly as a result of data-center-related infrastructure prices had been unfold throughout the whole buyer base. Massachusetts can’t repeat that mistake. Defending ratepayers have to be one in all Gov. Healey’s highest priorities.
To do this, the Commonwealth should undertake a complete regulatory framework governing data-center siting, environmental overview, water use, and value allocation. Siting choices ought to be grounded in rigorous environmental affect assessments that contemplate cumulative impacts and prioritize redevelopment of current industrial websites over greenfields or environmentally delicate areas. Communities will need to have a significant function in these choices, together with enforceable neighborhood advantages agreements that guarantee native residents share within the financial worth created.
The Commonwealth is properly positioned to develop into 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 aren’t obstacles to innovation — they’re the muse of sustainable innovation.
Ed Gaskin is Govt Director of Higher Grove Corridor Fundamental Streets and founding father of Sunday Celebrations
