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Home > TERATEC FORUM > Workshops > Workshop 8
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TERATEC 2025 Forum |
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Energy challenges and sustainable solutions in high-performance computing and artificial intelligence
Chaired by Charles Huot, Development Manager, Eclairion and Victor Martin, Manager, R&D Digital Hub Paris-Saclay, TotalEnergies
Energy and AI : Challenges for a Sustainable Growth
By Victor Martin, Manager, R&D Digital Hub Paris-Saclay, TotalEnergies
The recent emergence of LLMs is bringing the data center energy question to the front scene. The increase of data center energetic needs predates the generative AI boom: it only adds more uncertainty to the future energy demand of data centers. The rise of the need for electricity is nevertheless certain according to all publicly available studies and could reach 8-10% of the overall electricity consumption in developed countries by 2030, from 2-3% in 2024. This increase raises three energy-related questions to ensure a sustainable growth of the computing capacity.
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The first is the cost of electricity, for which energy savings to improve the efficiency of the DC as well as capacity to secure energy supply are prominent.
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The second is access to the energy itself. In some parts of the world, the lag time to be connected to the grid can reach years and even building behind the meter production facility is challenging.
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Eventually, the decarbonation of the electricity mix provided to data centers is a major sustainability challenge. Again, strategies can be different according to the locations and DC operators’ urgency to bring new computing capacity online, ranging from biogas-powered CCGT to renewables, nuclear and electricity storage capacities plus carbon capture.
Although the picture is different from one country to another, these three challenges must be addressed to grow data centers for AI in a sustainable way.
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Biography: Victor Martin is in charge of the Digital Competence Center for Electricity at TotalEnergies R&D in Saclay, France, and coordinates the company's digital activities in simulation, optimization, AI and computation. Victor has been with TotalEnergies since 2003. After a career as a geophysicist in several countries, starting in seismic processing in Pau, he specialized in technical team management roles in seismic imaging, advanced AI projects in the USA and coordination of cyber and digital roadmaps in the Americas division before returning to France in his current role. Victor is an alumnus of the Ecole Normale Supérieure PSL, holds a PhD in Earth Sciences from the Université Paris-Saclay and is a former auditor of the IHEDN, majoring in cybersecurity and digital sovereignty. |
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