Cristian Fàbrega Gallego: "AI is not environmentally free, but neither is it the monster that is presented to us"

BarcelonaCristian Fàbrega Gallego is a professor in the Department of Electronic and Biomedical Engineering and coordinates the master's degree in renewable energies and energy sustainability at the University of Barcelona. He speaks to ARA to explain the environmental impact and energy consumption of artificial intelligence data centers, which are multiplying worldwide.

We always talk a lot about water, but what other resources do artificial intelligence data centers consume?

— The environmental impact of these data centers or any other system is diverse. It is true that in this case water is often mentioned, because there were some somewhat viral news items at the time, but the main consumption is electrical. Then there are the water resources it needs, especially for cooling systems. There are also other impacts that are quite more local, such as noise or heat emission, which can sometimes also cause temperature variations around the facility, as well as the need to connect to the electrical infrastructure and the impact on the areas where they are built.

He mentioned noise pollution. There are also people who complain about the light pollution from these centers. Can this have consequences for human health?

— If the data center is not well constructed and is close to populated areas, the sound part can have repercussions on health. The light part is not so evident. The centers are usually underground and can hardly have a very high impact on health. And all these effects can be mitigated, because there are technologies to do so. That is, it is not a technology different from any other, with similar impacts.

Has the demand for energy increased with the arrival of generative AI models?

— The need for data centers that require a large amount of resources has skyrocketed. However, if they are well managed and well integrated into the areas where the centers are located, the impact should not be different from any other type of facility. The problem is that it is desired to do it so quickly and there is such a great need for data centers that not all the necessary criteria to reduce their impact are applied.

Is it known what part of the centers' consumption is dedicated to computing and what part to refrigeration?

— The consumption of refrigeration is very high, because almost all the energy consumed by data centers ultimately dissipates as heat. But when calculations are made, the water needed for the cooling systems that the power plants generating electricity for data centers require is also accounted for.

Is air cooling really a viable alternative to water cooling?

— Yes, there are alternative technologies for cooling. In the case of air cooling, what is done is to move the problem elsewhere, because it consumes a lot of energy. The water resource will come from the extra energy that is needed for cooling. That is, the water impact depends heavily on the origin of the electricity consumed and the technology used for cooling. And this depends on the location and the electrical system to which it is connected. There is no study that has given a universally applicable value, studies are done with respect to a very specific location or a very specific data center.

How many years of useful life can the centers have and how is the management of the waste they generate once obsolete planned?

— I couldn't say exactly what the lifespan is. It's true that these types of technologies are regularly renewed because new, faster ones appear. I don't think this aspect is critical because we're talking about well-defined and controlled structures, and therefore management can be done easily. In fact, the problem with hardware is more serious with the computers we have at home. Here the problem is very decentralized and when our computer dies, we don't know what to do with it and no recovery and recycling circuit is established.

And if we talk about Catalonia, is it a region with the capacity to host centers of this kind? What regulatory measures should be applied to make its presence sustainable?

— Catalonia has a good electrical grid. It is true that the integration of renewable energies is a bottleneck. We have had problems for many years due to bureaucratic issues, many diverse implementation issues, and, above all, environmental ones. If regulations or rules are approved, the data centers will be perfectly viable, not only in Catalonia, but anywhere in Spain or Europe. The underlying problem is that these are barriers, and therefore, data center managers will end up going to a country where there is no regulation.

Will the potential help of AI to develop greener and more sustainable systems ever offset its footprint?

— It is difficult to say. I think it will hardly compensate for the consumption it may have, but none of the technological evolutions we have had have compensated for the environmental part. Artificial intelligence is not environmentally free, but it is not the monster that is sometimes presented to us either. Its impact will depend on the design of the data centers, where the energy it consumes comes from, or whether we are able to make better use of the resources they use.

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