Attendees stroll by means of the primary entrance throughout the Client Electronics Present in Las Vegas on January 10, 2025.
With its deal with progressive merchandise and cutting-edge know-how, the annual Client Electronics Present (CES) has not traditionally paid a lot consideration to power corporations.
However there have been indicators of a shift at this 12 months’s Las Vegas occasion, because the tech sector begins to confront its substantial power wants, that are sure to develop as cloud computing and synthetic intelligence advance.
“If you’d asked me to do CES five years ago, I wouldn’t necessarily have seen the point,” mentioned Sebastien Fiedorow, chief government of the French start-up Aerleum, which manufactures artificial gas from carbon dioxide (C02).
“But we are in a very different CES than five years ago,” he advised AFP, including that even when energy companies stay “on the fringes” of CES, “we’re here.”
“It’s a good first opportunity,” he added.
Knowledge facilities accounted for 4.4 p.c of US electrical energy wants in 2023, a determine that’s prone to rise to 12 p.c by 2028, in line with the US Division of Vitality.
Gary Shapiro, chief government of the Client Expertise Affiliation, which organizes CES, mentioned power transition was meant to be “a big focus” of this 12 months’s present.
“It’s something we’ve talked about for awhile,” he added, stressing that the tech sector wants “innovative solutions” to make sure it has the ability it requires shifting ahead.
‘Not probably the most attractive’
Among the many corporations pitching such innovation at CES, which wrapped up on Friday, was the Dutch agency LV Vitality, which generates electrical energy from sound and vibrations.
Common director Satish Jawalapersad mentioned the corporate’s presence on the present was noteworthy.
“The fact that we’re here with the CES does say something, definitely,” he advised AFP.
However LV Vitality did not point out synthetic intelligence in its presentation, which he mentioned possible suppressed curiosity, with AI being “the magic word,” at CES.
“Maybe we’re not the most sexy… because we don’t say those words,” he advised AFP.
Different power companies additionally acknowledged a battle to interrupt by means of.
DataGreen, one other French firm, goals to construct smaller, greener information facilities that run on renewable energy, saving tech corporations cash by decreasing information storage prices.
The CES signal is seen on the venue throughout the Client Electronics Present (CES) in Las Vegas in January 2025.
Cloud computing giants have to this point proven no curiosity, mentioned DataGreen’s head of AI, Julien Choukroun.
“For now, they don’t see the point (in partnering with DataGreen) but we’re trying to convince them,” Choukroun mentioned.
The corporate received an innovation award at CES this 12 months, its first look on the present, and Choukroun argued its companies are important.
“We can’t continue to increase the hangar space (of data centers),” he mentioned, stressing the land obtainable to deal with sprawling storage websites “is not infinite.”
He voiced confidence that after Massive Tech realizes DataGreen gives value financial savings, that can “be more persuasive than the ‘green'” facet.
Altering mindsets
Jordan Huyghe, product supervisor on the French firm Otrera, which designs small nuclear reactors, mentioned a serious change within the relationship between tech and the power sector would require funding from giants like Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
Amazon is already the world’s largest purchaser of renewable power.
In September, Microsoft signed a cope with Constellation Vitality to reopen the Three Mile Island energy plant within the US state of Pennsylvania, the scene of a devastating nuclear meltdown in 1979.
Vitality from the plant will energy Microsoft data centers.
Options, Huyghe mentioned, can come from corporations large enough to fund them.
“To move forward on projects like these, you need to raise money,” he mentioned.
Whereas curiosity stays muted for smaller gamers, Jawalapersad of LV Vitality mentioned his firm has “numerous leads” in america.
Fiedorow of Aerleum mentioned there was little doubt the tech sector’s deal with power is rising.
“We produce fuel and work on a technology that is pretty far removed from the focus of the Consumer Electronics Show,” he mentioned.
Aerleum’s presence in Las Vegas “shows that the mindset is changing.”
© 2025 AFP
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Tech sector’s power transition attracts consideration at Vegas present (2025, January 12)
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