LCC Submits Comments in Response to DOE’s Request for Information on Artificial Intelligence Executive Order
Today, the LCC submitted comments in response to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Request for Information regarding DOE’s responsibilities under the Executive Order titled “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).”
The LCC urges DOE to consider taking the following measures to reduce energy use and/or increase energy efficiency:
Use liquid cooling technologies whenever practicable.
If deploying AI within existing data centers, DOE should ensure energy usage, cooling systems, and water usage are all regularly monitored and reported.
Instead of building new data centers, DOE should consider using private cloud service providers for applications of AI, as many private sector cloud service providers have high energy efficiency ratings.
In the event that DOE builds new data centers for its AI applications,
It should require that those data centers install advanced energy meters and establish a power usage effectiveness (PUE) target of less than 1.2 for new data centers.
It should also consider the opportunities for free cooling and heat sinks to reduce energy requirements.
It should consider water usage requirements when siting those data centers.
It should require that those data centers install advanced water meters, require stringent monthly reporting requirements, and establish plans to minimize water use.
It should consider opportunities for heat reuse of waste heat (e.g., for district heating, food processing, commercial cooling and refrigeration that can be driven with hot water driven absorption, bio-ethanol production, desalination, water treatment, or water distillation).
For existing data centers that deploy AI, if DOE is not already using liquid cooling in any of those facilities, DOE should assess retrofitting them with liquid cooling technologies to ensure they are able to accommodate the higher rack densities required for most processing of AI as soon as possible.
For existing data centers that deploy AI, if DOE has not already considered opportunities for heat reuse of waste heat, it should do so.
For all existing data centers, if DOE is not already deploying advanced energy meters, it should install them and establish a PUE target of less than 1.5 within three years.
In cooperation with other relevant government entities, DOE should carry out comprehensive assessments of the potential for efficient heating and cooling operations every three years, starting in 2025. These assessments should include the consideration of using liquid cooling and reducing or reusing heat from data centers.