The government has given the green light to the first AI Growth Zones (AIGZs), where fast-track planning will be on offer for the data centres underpinning the computing revolution.
The AI Action Plan, announced by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 13 January, says the first AIGZ will be in Culham, Oxfordshire, which is also home to the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
More AIGZs, which are most likely to be located in de-industrialised areas with good access to power and strong support from councils, will be announced in the summer, according to the plan.
Working with the recently established National Energy System Operator, the process for selecting the zones will take into account the proposed data centres’ energy requirements, Ed Miliband and Peter Kyle, respectively Secretaries of State for energy and science, will co-chair a new government AI Energy Council to find sustainable ways for the UK to meet the technology’s ever-increasing power needs.
These will include looking at opportunities to accelerate investment in the development of low carbon power solutions, including small modular nuclear reactors, and AI’s role in spurring the development of a ‘modern, efficient and sustainable’ energy system.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently estimated that the surge of new data centres being developed to cater for AI tools such as ChatGPT would increase global electricity demand by up to 6%.
In order to secure supplies of reliable power, tech giant Amazon announced last year that it plans to re-open the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, which has been closed since 1979, when it was the scene of the USA’s worst nuclear accident.
