With its focus on innovative products and cutting-edge technology, the annual CES has not historically paid much attention to energy companies.
However, there were signs of a shift at this year’s Las Vegas event, as the tech sector begins to confront its substantial energy needs, which are certain to grow as cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) advance.
“If you’d asked me to do CES five years ago, I wouldn’t necessarily have seen the point,” said Sebastien Fiedorow, chief executive of the French start-up Aerleum, which manufactures synthetic fuel from carbon dioxide.
Photo: AFP
“But we are in a very different CES than five years ago,” he said, adding that even if energy companies remain “on the fringes” of CES, “we’re here.”
Data centers accounted for 4.4 percent of US electricity needs in 2023, a figure that is likely to rise to 12 percent by 2028, the US Department of Energy said.
Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the Consumer Technology Association, which organizes CES, said energy transition was intended to be “a big focus” of this year’s show.
“It’s something we’ve talked about for a while,” he said, stressing that the tech sector needs “innovative solutions” to ensure it has the power it requires.
Among the companies pitching such innovation at CES, which wrapped up on Friday, was the Dutch firm LV Energy BV, which generates electricity from sound and vibrations.
The company’s general director Satish Jawalapersad said their presence at the show was noteworthy.
“The fact that we’re here with the CES does say something, definitely,” he said.
LV Energy did not mention AI in its presentation, which he said likely suppressed interest, with AI being “the magic word” at CES.
“Maybe we’re not the most sexy ... because we don’t say those words,” he said.
Other energy firms also acknowledged a struggle to break through. DataGreen, another French firm, aims to build smaller, greener data centers that run on renewable energy, saving tech companies money by reducing data storage costs.
Cloud computing giants have so far shown no interest, DataGreen’s AI head Julien Choukroun said.
“For now, they don’t see the point, but we’re trying to convince them,” Choukroun said.
The company won an innovation award at CES this year, its first appearance at the show, and Choukroun said its services are essential.
“We can’t continue to increase the hangar space [of data centers],” he said, stressing the land available “is not infinite.”
He voiced confidence that once Big Tech realizes DataGreen offers cost savings, that would “be more persuasive than the ‘green’” aspect.
Jordan Huyghe, product manager at the French firm Otrera, which designs small nuclear reactors, said a major change in the relationship between tech and the energy sector would require investment from giants such as Amazon.com Inc, Google or Microsoft Corp. Amazon is already the world’s largest purchaser of renewable energy.
In September last year, Microsoft signed a deal with Constellation Energy Corp to reopen the Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania. Energy from the plant would power Microsoft data centers.
Solutions could come from companies big enough to fund them, Huyghe said.
“To move forward on projects like these, you need to raise money,” he said.
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