The Power Paradox: The Hidden Cost of Intelligence
CHALLENGES NOVEMBER 2, 2025
AI is revolutionizing the world — but it’s also using massive amounts of energy and water to do it.
Scientists have predicted that by 2040, nearly half of the world’s electricity could be used for computing. Remarkably, this projection came before the explosive growth of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) — and now, demand is rising faster than anyone expected.
According to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the energy required to power AI in the U.S. could jump 10x by 2030, placing severe strain on both energy grids and water resources.
AI is smart — but it’s also hungry.
How AI’s Appetite is Reshaping the Energy Landscape
Every AI conversation, query, or image generation runs on powerful data centers — vast facilities that require immense electricity to compute and water to cool.
Training large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT can consume megawatt-hours of energy — comparable to powering hundreds of homes or even a small city. And the water cost is just as jarring. Each AI interaction consumes roughly the equivalent of a bottle of water, just to manage heat. On a larger scale, data centers can use millions of gallons of water each year, depending on their cooling systems and climate.
Together, these demands are reshaping our energy-water nexus — the interconnection between how we use power and water to sustain our digital world.
AI Can Help Fix the Problem It Creates
The good news? The same technology driving this surge in energy and water demand can also help reduce it. AI can help solve the resource challenges that it creates by optimizing energy efficiency, improving water management, and accelerating the shift to a more intelligent, sustainable grid.
On the energy front, AI is already making a difference. Predictive analytics can forecast energy demand and optimize cooling, server loads, and distribution systems. Dynamic resource allocation systems can power down idle servers and balance workloads, saving both power and cost.
This same intelligence is tackling water conservation. Tech giants are pioneering new cooling methods, such as Microsoft’s zero-water design that uses chip-level cooling and eliminates water evaporation. Beyond the data center, AI and advanced analytics are crucial for finding leaks in our aging municipal water networks. Solutions like Itron’s Non-Revenue Water platform help cities detect, prioritize, and address leaks using real-time data—reducing both water loss and the hidden energy cost of pumping and treatment.
By creating "Green AI"—models and hardware that require less power and water to train and operate—the industry can innovate more responsibly.
Our Power, Our Planet
As AI becomes more deeply integrated into our lives, its footprint — both digital and environmental — will only grow. But so will its potential to help us use data more resourcefully, manage energy more intelligently, and conserve water more efficiently.
The future of AI doesn’t have to come at the planet’s expense — it can help power a smarter, cleaner, and more resilient world.
Learn more in Itron’s 2025 Resourcefulness Report that explores how today’s utilities can embrace the transformative role of data analytics, AI and grid edge intelligence to build a more sustainable energy and water future.