Quality electricity matters for the AI age

Park Joo-hun
The author is a professor of Dongduk University and former president of Korea Energy Economics Institute.

The AI revolution and climate change pose the biggest challenges for the modern civilization. Human civilization has mostly evolved to stretch the limits of physical capabilities. Machinery inventions have freed humans from hard labor. The revolutionary advances in transportation vehicles and both wired and wireless telecommunications have helped humanity transcend physical, time and space constraints.

The progressing AI revolution, dubbed as the steam engine of the mind, is a transformative technology pushing the limits of human intelligence. The neuron chip is out to substitute all cognitive activities of the mind such as comprehension, analysis, projection and creativity, which were regarded as exclusive to humanity.

Regardless of the ongoing ethical dispute over AI powers, the technology is like an arrow that already left the bowstring. Technological breakthrough is a by-product of a curiosity-driven chain reaction, and leaves little room for ethical debate over a novel innovation. Like it or not, a civilization will fall behind if it does not keep abreast of the march of the AI revolution.

The dangerously fast evolution in climate change demands an urgent exit from fossil fuel-based energy. Carbon emissions from the employment of fossil fuels are blamed as the primary driver of climate change. Fossil fuels birthed modern civilization. If they are not replaced with carbon-free energy, mankind must choose to live in a regressed society or under extreme weather conditions.

While the AI revolution has added new steam to the advancement of humanity, climate change constrains forward movement. But there is a cheat code to balance the two contradicting factors to sustain progress in civilization — energy.

AI is an energy hog. Energy consumed for the system and operation of AI can be immeasurably large. Extreme ultraviolet lithography used to churn out advanced microchips demands 10 times more electricity than typical chip-printing machines. AI tasks are generally far more energy-intensive, with a search through ChatGPT demanding 10 times more power than usual internet search platforms. It may not be an exaggeration to project that the new chip cluster in Yongin, Gyeonggi, could cost an additional 10 gigawatts of power.

The key to mitigating climate change is to ultimately shift to zero-carbon energy. All the low-carbon, energy-generating sources from nuclear reactors and wind, solar and hydrogen farms require a supply of electricity. Therefore, the key to the success of carbon-neutral AI hinges on the abundance of zero-carbon power supply.

The question is whether the supply of low-carbon electricity is possible without the role of nuclear reactors. Without nuclear reactors, solar and wind power, which are dependent on weather, are the only low-carbon energy sources. Humanity has yet to achieve the technology to sufficiently stock intermittent energy resources to run a country when they are not available. AI systems that must run seamlessly cannot completely rely on intermittent energy sources, and this is why nuclear reactors must continue to play their roles.

Even if energy resources are sufficient, they are useless if they cannot be transmitted due to a lack of network infrastructure. New power stations are being idled after even after their construction because they do not have a transmission system. The demand for transmission will surge in line with the rise in demand for electricity and renewable energy supplies. It is estimated that the country will need 2.3 times more transmission networks by 2050, which means over the next 30 years, it will need two times the number of lines that the country built over the last 60 years. The legislature must immediately pass a special bill to expedite the enhancement of power transmission systems.

All these works require astronomical funds and fall on primary state utility Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco). But Kepco cannot make new investments, as it is saddled by debts over 100 trillion won ($72.7 billion) resulting from its years-long sale of electricity below production costs under political pressure. Normalizing electricity rates should the start of the country’s journey towards the destination of carbon neutrality and the AI revolution.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.