Amazon Web Services head Matt Garman emphasizes that the United Kingdom needs to build more nuclear power plants to support the increasing electricity requirements of artificial intelligence operations and data centers.
The cloud computing division of Amazon which operates as AWS plans to spend £8 billion on UK data center development throughout the next four years. These centers—massive facilities filled with servers—power everything from AI tools to streaming services. These facilities require substantial power consumption because they need as much electricity as a small town.
During his BBC interview Garman described nuclear energy as an excellent power solution for data centers because it provides zero-carbon electricity that operates continuously.
AWS stands as the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy worldwide while supporting more than 40 solar and wind projects across the UK. Garman explained that renewable energy sources will not provide sufficient power to meet future demands. “We invest ahead. The world needs to develop new technological solutions according to my prediction. The future demands nuclear power as a major solution because we need to look ahead to 10 years.
The 500 data centers operating in the UK at present use 2.5% of the total electricity supply. The projected data center electricity consumption will reach 6% of national power usage by 2030. The power consumption of Ireland’s 80 data centers exceeds 21% of the country’s total electricity usage.
The power grid authority of Britain anticipates data center power consumption will match all current industrial power usage by 2050. Amazon has made reliable energy and planning its highest operational priority because of the upcoming power demands.
