If you think Houston is the Energy Capital of the World, you may have heard of an energy industry get-together called CERAWeek, hosted by S&P Global.
US electricity demand hit its all-time high in 2021, at more than 4,200 terawatt-hours. The US has never used more electricity than it does right now. But, it also uses barely more electricity today than it did fifteen years ago. The previous record year for electricity consumption was all the way back in 2007. To put it another way, US electricity demand was post-growth for most of this century. Even 2022’s record power consumption was less than two percent higher than it was 15 years earlier.
This post is the first in a series examining the economics and environmental benefits of AI’s demand for electricity.