In an article, Wendy Cromwell, Vice President of Management at Wellington College, points out that the expansion of AI applications will significantly increase electricity demand. A single ChatGPT query consumes approximately 10 times the electricity of a single Google search. As AI shifts from single-turn question answering to multi-step agent tasks, the demand for computing resources may also increase dramatically. A study cited in the article found that token consumption for agent programming tasks can be up to 1000 times that of ordinary code reasoning and chat tasks. Wellington College believes that AI companies are increasing their investments in renewable energy, energy storage, and related infrastructure to cope with the growing energy demand. A long-term forecast map released by ThunderSaid Energy in 2024 shows that internet-related electricity demand could rise to approximately 3800 terawatt-hours by 2050, with artificial intelligence becoming a significant driver of later growth.
