consumes

AI consumes obscene amounts of energy. Sam Altman compares it to the cost of “training” humans

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman participated in an event organized by The Indian Express. During the interview made some striking statements, but the greatest of all of them was the one he dedicated to talking about what it costs to train an AI model. In fact, he complained about how many of ChatGPT’s energy consumption discussions they are unfair. Training humans also consumes a lot. The interviewer asked Altman about ChatGPT’s energy consumption and Sam Altman took a few seconds to answer the question, and then made a peculiar comparison (my bold): One of the things that is always unfair in this comparison is that it talks about how much energy it takes to train an AI model compared to what it costs a human to perform an inference query. But it also takes a lot of energy to train a human. It takes about 20 years of life and all the food you eat during that time before you become intelligent. And not only that, it took the widespread evolution of the hundred billion people who have lived and learned not to be eaten by predators and to understand science and so on to create you. The fair comparison is if you ask ChatGPT, how much energy does it take once their model is trained to answer that question compared to a human? And AI has probably already caught up in terms of energy efficiency if we measure it that way. A previous Epoch AI study corroborates that energy consumption during inference (when we actually use ChatGPT, for example) is low. Source: Epoch AI. Training is one thing, inference another.. The answer may be controversial, but to a certain extent it is logical: learning, both in the case of humans and AI, takes time and consumes many resources, but that cost is one thing and the cost of inference, of “applying that training”, is another. Once we have learned, it is not too difficult to answer things. This is what Altman is trying to point out here, who recognizes that AI does indeed consume a lot of energy in training, but that it has then become very efficient in the inference phase, when we actually use ChatGPT. The problem is that although Altman has already spoken that in inference consumption is minimal, does not provide evidence of this. The water problem is no longer a problem. He also spoke about the controversial water consumption that was theoretically carried out in large AI data centers. Although he acknowledged that this was a problem when “we used to use evaporative cooling in data centers.” Now, however, “we don’t do that,” he recalled, and made it clear that those accusations that “ChatGPT uses 17 gallons per query, or whatever” is totally false, “totally crazy, it has no connection with reality.” But again, there is still no official data from AI companies in this section. How much does AI really consume? The truth is that at this point we still do not have really clear data on how much the AI ​​consumes both in the training phase and in the inference phase. There are those who have investigated energy and water consumption and have made a mistake. wildly exaggerating the databut for example in the US, where a large number of data centers are concentrated, there is no legislation that forces transparency with those figures. Increasingly more efficient models and data centers. One of the most interesting studies was the one made by Epoch AI in February 2025, and at that time it was also concluded that AI did not actually consume as much as it was said to consume. In fact, it consumed relatively little and the models have only improved in efficiency. Chips and cooling systems have also improved, and although data centers have certainly require enormous amounts of energywe continue blindly in this section. In Xataka | Spain has a plan to capture more data centers than anyone else: “shield” them from energy costs

consumes more light than the city of San Francisco during rush hour

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Being late to the AI ​​race means being left behind. We have the case of Apple that has just knelt and will use Google models to improve Siri. However, there is another opposite case with xAI, a company that was born in 2023when ChatGPT was already more than grown, and today it has made a place for itself among the largest, even overtaking them. what has happened. xAI has just inaugurated Colossus 2, its new data center located in Memphis, Tennessee. For an AI company to open a data center is not surprising, given the pace at which they are being built, but in this case we are talking about the first AI training cluster of 1 gigawatt of power. To put it in context, it is more electricity than peak hour demand in the city of San Francisco. Elon Musk has boasted in X and has assured that by April they want to expand to 1.5 gigawatts. Colossus 2, in figures. Colossus 1 has 230,000 GPUs and the new cluster has upped the ante with more than half a million GPUs and it is also one of the most expensive ever built. According to the report of EpochAIthe investment has reached 44,000 million dollars. The Microsoft Fairwater center is expected to surpass it in both investment and power, but is still in the construction phase. Infrastructure yes, thank you. xAI may not have the best chatbot, but they want to have it and that means creating infrastructure faster than their rivals. With Colossus 1the company completed its construction in just 122 days, a milestone. Colossus 2 took a little longer (the project started in March 2025), but In just six months it already had 200MW of cooling capacity installedwhich according to Semianalysis is much faster than other megaprojects from Oracle and OpenAI. Stepping on the accelerator. As we said, xAI was born in 2023, a time when there were already established companies in the sector. In the Semianalysis graph, you can see perfectly the acceleration they have given in training capacity. At the beginning of 2024 they were last in capacity and by September 2025 they had placed second behind OpenAI. Apart from the Grok controversies (that there have not been few) it has become clear that betting on infrastructure has been key for xAI catches up of his rivals. Controversies. Feeding these mastodons is not an easy task and for this Musk’s company deployed up to 35 gas turbines with a capacity of more than 400 megawatts. The problem is that they pollute a lot and Memphis already has terrible air quality, so much so that it’s known as the “asthma capital.” Plus, he didn’t have permission to have that many turbines, so Musk had an idea: Colossus is next to the border with Mississippi, another state where emissions laws are more lax, so moved part of the turbines there. Image | xAI In Xataka | Elon Musk wants to turn xAI into an ultra-valuable company and he knows how to do it: using the SpaceX vault

Madrid consumes more and generates less energy than anyone else. And their neighbors are also refusing to install solar panels.

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Between the grain fields and the family housing estates of eastern Madrid, the residents of Villalbilla and Torres de la Alameda live a battle that is repeated in many corners of Spain: that of a territory that wants clean energy, but afraid of losing his identity. In short. On the banks of the Viso, a residential and natural area closely linked to family life, a macro photovoltaic solar plant is planned of 70.8 megawatts promoted by Envatios Promotion XXIV SL, a subsidiary of the Swiss multinational Smartenergy. The project, known as “Envatios XXIV – Phase III”, would occupy about 335 hectares of agricultural and natural land, the equivalent of more than 470 soccer fields, between both municipalities. The resolution that grants the declaration of public utility was published in the Official State Gazette, a step that paves its execution. However, the approval has set off alarms in the area: Neighborhood platforms and associations have begun to mobilize to stop what they consider a threat to their environment and quality of life. The spark of conflict. The Platform for the Defense of Visibility complaint the “lack of transparency and absence of participation” in the processing of the project. They claim that Villalbilla City Council was not even formally notified during the process, a defect that could have legal consequences. The macro project, they explainwill cause possible environmental and social risks: local increase in temperature due to the reflective effect of the plates, noise pollution, loss of vegetation and risk of fires. At the information meeting held on October 7, the technicians and neighbors summarized their position in a phrase that has become the movement’s motto: “We are not against solar energy, but rather its poor location. Energy yes, but with common sense.” A wave of institutional opposition. Neighborhood rejection has found a political echo. Villalbilla Town Hall approved a motion against the project with the support of 17 councilors from different parties. The decision reflects the concern shared by residents and municipal representatives regarding the environmental and landscape impact. A few days later, the council announced that it will present an appeal to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO). It has also maintained contacts with the Government Delegation in Madrid and has requested a review of the process. On his Facebook page, the mayor, José Luis Luque Lorente, qualified the situation: “The plant is located in Torres de la Alameda. In Villalbilla no permanent facilities are implemented, only some plots will be temporarily affected as accesses during the works.” Even so, the council has joined the mobilizationarguing that any large energy infrastructure must be done with planning and consensus. ANDon the other front. The promoting company has with the favorable environmental impact declaration and that its capacity—70.8 MW—could supply the annual electricity consumption of some 90,000 homes. Some landowners have already signed rental contracts with the developer. “The project is unstoppable, and it is better to make a profit,” one of them explained to Infobae. The debate has even divided the municipalities themselves: while Villalbilla and Torres prepare legal appeals, Mejorada del Campo has chosen for negotiating with the company. This last municipality has achieved reduce plant size by 40%, establish a local employment plan and compensation of 3.8 million euros. Even within the regional administration itself there are divergences: the General Directorate of Environmental Quality of the Community of Madrid issued a favorable report, while the General Directorate of Agriculture considered it unviable for affecting woody crops and recommended finding another location. The dilemma of the landscape. The Platform for the Defense of Viso insists that the problem is not solar energy itself, but the model of massive implementation without territorial planning. As we well knowthe debate is not new. In a forum for El País, energy expert Eloy Sanz warned that “rejecting almost any renewable development is a mistake,” and that “the less renewables, the more fossil fuels.” But he also criticized the use of the term “macro” as an emotional label: “The prefix ‘macro’ is key on an emotional level, regardless of the actual size of the project.” The dilemma extends throughout Spain. The motto “Renewable yes, but not like this” has caught on in rural areas of Andalusia, Aragon and Galicia. In Jaén, neighbors and farmers oppose an installation that would involve cutting down more than 100,000 olive trees. In Galicia, the Supreme Court provisionally suspended a wind farm for failing to evaluate its cumulative impact on the territory. The conflicts share a pattern: rural communities that support the energy transition, but demand order, transparency and balance. It will have to be distributed. The point is that the case of Villalbilla and Torres de la Alameda has an additional paradox: it occurs in one of the regions that produces the least energy and consumes the most. The Community of Madrid generates only 4.8% of the energy it usesbut it concentrates 11% of national demand. Meanwhile, other areas of the country—Extremadura, Aragón, Castilla-La Mancha or Andalusia— support the thickness of electricity generation. This shows that the background is the same: an energy transition that advances at an uneven pace and with little territorial planning. As the country seeks to meet 2030 climate goals, local communities are demanding a say in how and where their environment is transformed. “We want a just transition.” That is the phrase most repeated by the residents of Viso. His message coincides with that of many citizen movements that have emerged throughout Spain: support for renewables, but with respect for the territory. Maybe the key is in what pointed out Eloy Sanz: “The dilemma is not between progress or landscape, but between doing it well or doing it badly.” Between climate urgency and fear of change, Villalbilla and Torres de la Alameda embody a question that Spain has not yet resolved: how to achieve clean energy that is also fair? Image | Unsplash Xataka | The Altri megaplant has caused an enormous social response in Galicia. And now the Government has given … Read more

If it consumes more, turn on the oven or air fryer

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Every time the electricity bill arrives, we look at it with more attention than before. It is no longer enough to turn off the lights or unplug the cell phone charger: now cooking has also become an energy decision. Between hobs, ovens and air fryers, the kitchen has become the new battleground for savings. In recent years, the air fryer has come to staypromising lighter and faster meals. But the question remains in the air: does it consume more or less than the traditional oven? The modern dilemma. They may both cook with hot air, but their way of doing it makes the difference. The air fryer, Endesa explainsit works more like a miniature oven than a classic fryer. Its trick is to circulate hot air at high speed within a small compartment, achieving fast and uniform cooking. The traditional oven, for its part, heats a much larger space and needs to maintain the temperature for longer.And that’s the crux of the matter: the larger the volume, the more energy is expended. According to Naturgy, Although the oven is not the device that consumes the most electricity per year – barely 4% of the total – its specific power is one of the highest, and this can be noticed when the light goes up. Data and euros on the table. The power figures help to understand it better. An average air fryer has a power of between 1,000 and 1,800 watts, which is equivalent to a consumption of 0.8 to 1.5 kilowatt hours (kWh) per time of use, depending on the model and time. Meanwhile, a conventional oven has a higher power of between 2,000 and 5,000 watts, and with an average consumption of 1 to 1.5 kWh per use, although it may be higher for long cooking times or high temperatures. To understand it better, it is worth looking at how much it costs for our pocket. According to TotalEnergiesusing an air fryer for half an hour costs between 11 and 23 cents, depending on the model and the electricity rate. On the other hand, an electric oven can double that amount, especially if used at high temperatures or for more than an hour. Cooking a kilo and a half chicken at 220°C for just over an hour, for example, can cost around 30 or 40 cents. depending on the time zone. And although it may seem like little, consumption multiplies when it is used frequently or long preheats are performed. In addition, the oven requires preheating – between 10 and 15 minutes – and loses up to 25% of heat each time the door is opened, according to the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU). Small gestures that increase consumption without us realizing it. The CNMC remember that the real cost It depends on the price of the kilowatt hour (kWh) at any given time. In 2025, the average domestic price in Spain is around €0.14/kWh, although it varies significantly between peak and off-peak hours. Therefore, rather than focusing only on the appliance, it is advisable to cook in the cheapest sections or take advantage of the residual heat, small gestures that can reduce final expenditure by up to 20%. Does size matter? That’s it the secret of the air fryer: a compact compartment that concentrates heat and reduces cooking time. The hermetic design and constant circulation of hot air allow it to reach temperatures of up to 200 °C in just a few minutes, which shortens times and prevents heat leaks. Therefore, for small portions or individual dishes, the air fryer wins by a landslide in efficiency. Of course, the most modern ovens have also learned to save. Those with energy class A or B and convection models with internal fan can consume up to 60% less than the old ones, and if their full capacity is used – cooking several dishes at the same time or using duo trays – the cost per serving can be very competitive. Beyond appliances. Efficiency not only depends on the appliance, but small gestures – such as not opening the oven while cooking, taking advantage of residual heat or planning several recipes at the same time – can reduce energy consumption. up to 30% annually. Unplugging small appliances when not in use avoids “phantom consumption”, and choosing appliances with an A or B energy label is an investment that pays for itself in a few months. In the words of the CNMCadapting use to the most economical schedules can mean savings of between 9% and 15% on the annual bill. The future is served. The air fryer has democratized energy efficiency in the kitchen. It is compact, clean, fast and economical. But the oven, far from disappearing, retains its throne as a versatile and robust tool for lovers of traditional cuisine. Ultimately, the savings do not depend so much on the device as on the use we make of it. Image | FreePik and Pixabay Xataka | Dreame no longer wants to be just the vacuum cleaner brand. Your order to conquer the home: washing machines, refrigerators and even ovens

Google has finally revealed how much electricity and water consumes its AI. Estimates could not be more wrong

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We knew that generative artificial intelligence was a monster that was forcing companies to make large investments in energybut Google’s first detailed analysis has put the figures for the first time on the table. We go to the point. According to him Google Technical Reportbased on data from May 2025, an average text consultation to Gemini consumes 0.24 Electricity watts. To put it in context, it is something like watching nine seconds of television with a conventional TV of 100 W. Water consumption, which is still necessary to refrigerate serversis 0.26 milliliters per consultation; The equivalent of five drops of water. The carbon footprint of the entire inference process, according to the report, is 0.03 grams of equivalent. Wrong estimates. Just a year ago, third party analysis They estimated that a single consultation of AI in the Google search engine, such as those of AI overViews, could consume about 3 Wh, ten times more than a traditional search. This led to calculations as striking as the deployment of AI in the search engine would consume enough energy to load seven electric cars per second. With Google’s official data in hand, we see that this estimate was wrong by a 12.5 factor. The new software techniques (such as speculative decoding) and the most efficient models architectures (such as the Mixture-OF-Experts paradigm) have completely changed the panorama. Inference, no training. These figures, the most concrete published to date by the company, only take into account Gemini’s consumption by inferring user response. The expensive process of training the great language models that feed these tools remains a mystery, but Google is justified by saying that the massive adoption of generative AI, integrated even in its search engine, has put the focus on inference. In this direct relationship with the user it is also where greater efficiency jumps are getting large technological companies. Google says that, in the last 12 months, energy consumption has divided by 33 and by 44 the carbon footprint of each consultation to Gemini. Much of this jump has to do, not only with more efficient models, but with the improvement of AI accelerators (Tpus and Gpus), a hardware that Google develops internally. The amount of “prompts” per kWh that process the different models of AI Less than Netflix. Google is not alone in this new era of transparency. Sam Altman, CEO of Openai, also shed some light on the consumption of chatgpt. In one June 2025 publicationAltman said that an average consultation to ChatgPT consumes approximately 0.34 or energy Wh and about 0.3 ml of water. The energy figure is slightly higher than Gemini’s, although it is a difficult comparison. Altman did not give details of his methodology, so we do not know if his calculation includes all the factors that Google has considered (such as electrical consumption in refrigeration and in “idle” machines; that is, inactive, but ready for rapid consumption peaks). Both companies have been compared to television: “An hour of Netflix consumes 100 times more electricity than Chatgpt,” says an official OpenAI slide. The same that says that the total impact of AI on US carbon emissions would be around 0.5%. Images | Google In Xataka | The consumption of AI is overestimated and we must worry more about the air conditioning, according to the IAE

IA consumes so much energy that the United States is building data centers directly in natural gas wells

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What makes a startup dedicated to building data centers get 11.6 billion dollars in financing. In the case of Crusoe Energy Systems, it all started with an idea as disturbing as profitable: build data centers with natural gas wells. Crusoe Energy’s idea Journalist Emily Chang de Bloomberg visited a few weeks ago The city of Abilene, in Texas, where Crusoe is building the monstrous Stargate data centers, The 500.00 billion project OpenAi, SoftBank and Oracle to develop general artificial intelligence. Stargate arrived at Crusoe Energy thanks to the demonstrated efficiency of the startup in the construction of specialized data centers in AI. Chase Lochmiller, the CEO of Crusoe, explained to Chang how the company was born: “When an oil company opens an oil well, one of the associated by -products is natural gas. And when they do not have access to an pipeline, all this associated gas simply burns in situ. So we had an idea: instead of trying to take that gas to a market where you can sell, we could create a market for gas. We could build mobile and modular data centers, take them direct data”. Crusoe was born in the best possible place to materialize this idea: the country of fracking. But maybe not at the best time to do it. Initially, they chose to build GPUS farms to undermine Bitcoin. When the cryptocurrency market collapsed, they ended up pivoting artificial intelligence. Like crypto mining, AI data centers are not based on CPUS but depend on the parallel processing capacity of thousands of GPUS, mainly Nvidia specialized chips. These new data centers consume much more energy than traditional data centers, so Crusoe started from a key advantage: their direct access to fossil fuels that obtained at the price of bargain. A booming business Oil giants are not oblivious to this trend. Exxonmobil is developing Off-Grid gas plants specifically for data centers with carbon capture technology to reduce emissions. Chevron, meanwhile, It has been associated With Engine No. 1 and Ge Vernova to mount similar facilities. The first will open in 2026, also in Texas. The figures are eloquent: the demand for natural gas for data centers will be increased by 47 GW from here to 2030. Currently, natural gas already feeds about 40% of the loading of data centers in the United States and is expected to continue being the main source of supply up to at least 2030. It is not the preferred energy source, but There are not enough renewable to feed artificial intelligence and Not all data centers They can be connected to a nuclear power plant, another common occurrence in the United States. As for Crusoe, thanks to the initial push of natural gas that were going to burn oil companies they developed their own technologies, such as a closed cooling system that does not need to renew The water evaporating the serversor own gas turbines, such as 360 MWs that are installing in the Stargate project as a backup energy source. Stargate data centers will feed mainly solar panels and wind turbines, which abound in Abilene for the confluence of wind and sunny hours. It is one of the reasons why data centers are being built in this Texas area, in addition to the tax exemptions that local governments are willing to yield in exchange for employment generation. It remains to be seen how many employees have everything built. Image | W.Carter (CCO) In Xataka | Microsoft will reopen a nuclear power plant that has been closed since 2019. It needs it for its artificial intelligence

consumes much more electricity than data centers

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In 2022 in the air conditioning it represented 7% of world consumption of electricity. And its pressure on electrical infrastructure does not stop increasing year after year. On the other hand, data centers will be responsible for 10% of the increase in energy demand until 2030. Air conditioning will contribute a much greater percentage. These estimates formalized them in November 2024 International Energy Agency (IEA) and clearly reflect that the energy consumption of air conditioning devices is more worrying than that of data centers. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) that we are living has triggered the proliferation of these facilities in the US, China, Japan, Singapore, India, Germany, Netherlands or Ireland, among other nations, but, in theory, the forecast of the IEA has taken it into account. And also that air conditioning devices have to respect an increasingly strict regulation in energy matters. However, as Casey Crownhart points out, a journalist specialized in the behavior of the weather of MIT Technology Reviewhe global warming Play against us. Refrigeration is the authentic monster of global energy demand In 2016 there were just under 2,000 million air conditioning devices throughout the planet. However, in 2050 the IEE estimates that there will be about 6,000 million of these devices. This strong growth is the consequence of the constant increase in the number of cooling degrees per day derived from global warming. In 2024 the cooling degrees per day were 6% higher than in 2023, and nothing less than 20% higher than the average of the first two decades of this century. The countries that invest more energy in the air conditioning devices are precisely the three most populated on the planet: India, China and the US The countries that invest more energy in the air conditioning devices are precisely the three most populated on the planet: India, China and the US. However, the impact of this energy demand is global. Besides, not only does it matter How much electricity consume air conditioning devices; It is also very relevant When this energy demand occurs. In fact, in the US these devices represent up to 70% of consumption in those time slots in which it is more hot. This behavior submits the electricity to enormous stress, although this voltage oscillates as the hottest hours give way to the freshest moments of the day. Whatever it is is evident that It is very important to innovate in the field of cooling technologies. The presumable proliferation of air conditioning devices over the next few years will require that each of them consume less energy. Even if it’s just a bit. A minimum improvement in a huge park park can make a big difference. The good news is that Innovations are coming in the technology of cooling devices that invite us to look to the future with reasonable optimism. Desiccant cooling systems use special materials that absorb moisture to cool spaces in a more efficient way. And heat exchangers containing not only air conditioning devices, but also refrigerators or heat pumps, are increasingly efficient. It seems that this is the way. Let us trust technological development to help us solve this enormous challenge. Image | Sergei a More information | MIT Technology Review In Xataka | Samsung throws the handbrake: delays the construction of its US avant -garde factories and South Korea

Green hydrogen consumes huge amounts of water. A new incredibly simple invention allows you to use seawater

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Green hydrogen is the missing piece in the puzzle of decarbonization. In a day like today, in which Spain It has produced 107.3% of the country’s energy demand From renewable sources, a greater storage capacity (batteries or pumping centrals and a more flexible demand is needed. Produce green hydrogen When electricity is very cheap It is the country’s commitment to take advantage of that surplus. There is a problem. While green hydrogen It occurs with solar or wind energy (That is why it is said that it is an energy vector that stores clean energy), the process to produce itwater electrolysis consumes huge amounts of fresh water, an increasingly scarce resource for billions of people in threatened regions For chronic drought. The obvious solution is to use seawaterthe most abundant resource on the planet. But of course, salt and impurities run the equipment and reduce the efficiency of the process. External desalination makers are needed, adding costs and energy consumption; or super -resistant electrolyzers, which are still under development. There is a third way. MIT researchers, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University and Michigan State University joined forces to find an alternative that nicknamed the “triumph of sustainability.” The system, detailed in Energy & Environmental Scienceproduces green hydrogen directly from sea water. It does so using solar energy with impressive efficiency, and generating drinking water as a byproduct. How they have done it. Taking advantage of the entire solar spectrum. The central idea of ​​this new approach, officially called HSD-We (Hybrid Solar Distillion-Water Electrolysis), is to squeeze the maximum solar energy. We know that photovoltaic panels convert only part of sunlight into electricity (The most efficient are around 25% efficiency). The rest of the energy dissipates as a residual heat. What if that heat, instead of wasted, will be used for something useful? Eureka! Simpler than it seems. Like many other systems for the production of green hydrogen, the HSD-We integrates solar panels that turn light into electricity and an electroly of protons exchange membrane (PEM) that breaks down the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The secret is at the rear of the solar panels, they are where the HSD-We has an interfacial thermal distiller coupled that uses the residual heat of photovoltaic cells to evaporate seawater. A simple membrane that absorbs salt water. It is a genius. The best thing is that it works. The electricity of the solar panels directly feeds the electrolyz. At the same time, the residual heat of the panel heats sea water in the interfacial distiller, evaporating it. This pure water vapor (already without salt) is transported by a small air space to the electrolyz, where it is directly condensed in the anode, adding ultra -patrol water for electrolysis. The prototype, tested by the MIT both in laboratory conditions, under simulated sunlight, and outdoors, on a partially sunny day, threw impressive figures. They achieved 35.9 liters of dry hydrogen per square meter of solar panel per hour, using real sea water. In terms of efficiency, The system turned 12.6%a comparable rate or even above current green hydrogen production technologies with drinking water. Cheap hydrogen finally? Beyond technical feat, preliminary economic analysis is also promising. Not depending on external supplies of electricity or purified water, the operating cost is minimal, so the price of hydrogen produced with this system could drastically fall with the scale. While conventional electrolysis fueled by the electricity grid and using drinking water It costs about 10 per kilothis HSD-We system, in exchange for a slightly larger initial investment, could reach 5 dollars per kilo after 3 years of operation and lower the kilo at 1 dollar in 15 years. A price that would undoubtedly change the rules of the game. Image | Nickelgreen In Xataka | Europe waste so much renewable energy that needs green hydrogen. And the country that leads it is Spain

Madrid only produces 4.8% of the energy it consumes, but has found a place to solve it: the subsoil

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In 1980, a group of geologists set out to investigate the depths of Madrid and I did not speak of the Movebut discover if under its soil there was oil. The black gold fever had reached the Castilian plateau. However, what seemed like a dream of energy self -sufficiency ended up opening the door to unexpected energy. Today, that story continues to be written, but with a turn that nobody anticipated. The search. One of the first and most serious drilling attempts was the one made by Shell in 1980 in the well known as “El Pradillo-1” where no hydrocarbons were found. At that time the Spanish capital dreamed of becoming an oil city attentive to the prevalence of fossil fuel above other alternatives at that time not yet sufficiently exploited. More than 3,500 meters deep, engineers did not find oil but very valuable data about the subsoil temperature, which gave rise to the exploration of geothermal energy. Thus, They found a geothermal aquifer with temperatures between 70ºC and 90ºC at depths that range between 1,500 and 2,150 meters. Over the years, More perforations were performed In nearby areas, such as three songs, San Sebastián de los Reyes and Geomadrid-1, where multicapa aquifers found with temperatures to produce geothermal energy. Although exploitation has not yet been developed on a large scale, investigations continue, and this renewable resource is expected to be used in the future as an alternative energy source in Madrid. Among the pros of this discovery, intrinsic characteristics of this type of clean energy that are based on the use of heat stored in groundwater stand out to generate electricity and for homes. But why isn’t it exploited? Despite the discovery of a significant geothermal potential in the Madrid subsoil, the exploitation of this energy source has not yet developed on a large scale Due to several factors Among those that include, in the first place, the high cost of initial investigations and perforations, the infrastructure necessary to take advantage of the heat of the subsoil efficiently, such as the construction of geothermal plants and water reinjection systems. Energy comes from other communities. Madrid only produces 4.8% of the energy it consumes. This fact only represents the urgency that the Autonomous Community should have to resolve the scarce of alternatives to meet its domestic demand. At present, the ranquin between the communities that more depends on the energy of other areas. If the Madrid region will diversify its energy mix through the use of geothermal energy, not only would it increase its self -sufficiency, but also contribute to a more balanced energy model between the different autonomous communities with economic redundancies throughout the country. In addition, it would lead to rethinking The installation of data centersamong other alternatives, and would reduce Energy generation concentration In certain areas of the country, the pressure on energy transport and distribution infrastructures, which would benefit the entire national energy system by reducing the carbon footprint. The forecasts. With the progress of drilling technologies and improvements in thermal use systems, such as geothermal heat pumps, Madrid could already be able to begin to take advantage of their geothermal resources more efficiently. This is what the Basque Country has done with Geothermal rings at the university. Another possible alternative is to take an example to Iceland, which has turned geothermal energy at the base of its energy model, representing 66% of the total primary energy consumption of the country. Image | Unspash and Unspash Xataka | Huelva has been the forgotten industrial pole of Spain for decades. We are realizing the consequences

The appliance that consumes the most energy at home after heating: the water heater

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If you believe that everything that influences your electrical invoice is air conditioning or heating, think about it again. There is an appliance that is making a mella much more silently and that, probably, you had not noticed. In situation. In recent months, the price of electricity in Spain He has experienced fluctuations important, with a significant increase in January 2025. The electricity rate reached 68.41 euros per MWhreaching a quota that was only remembered three years ago. This increase is not accidental, since it is mainly due to the increase in the price in the wholesale electricity market and the return of the VAT to 21%. In addition, the Finish of the Iberian Exception In August 2024 it has contributed to this increase. However, the solution is not only to use less heating or turning off lights, which also, but certain appliances are raising the price of the light invoice. The one you least expected. The water heater You need a lot of energy To warm up, redundancy, large amounts of water. Despite having transformed people’s daily lives and facilitated domestic tasks, their use has inevitably increased energy consumption in homes. In data. To make it easier to understand, an average consumption per person is around 800kwh per year, so in a house of four people and a 200 -liter deposit we would be talking about spending an annual total of 3,200kwh. All this, monetarily translated would be about € 600 a year only by the water heater. How can we save? To start, you have to look at the things we do wrong, such as adjusting the temperature to very high levels that raise the price, as at 60 ° C or more, when in reality a temperature between 50 ° C and 55 ° C is more than enough. Also, regular maintenance must be carried out to avoid the accumulation of tartar in resistances. This accumulation hinders heat transmission, which forces the system to consume more energy to heat the water. Another advice is to take advantage of the lowest demand schedules, improve the insulation of the tank and opt for alternative systems such as heat pumps or thermal panels. These options can generate important long -term savings. The alternatives. The latest technologies mentioned are going to analyze them more carefully. On the one hand, The thermal energy that uses the solar radiation to heat waterwhich makes it an option for homes with sufficient sun exposure, allowing to reduce the dependence of electric heaters. On the other hand, aerothermia, which takes advantage of The energy contained in heating aircooling and hot water, has become popular for its high energy efficiency. However, these options have a fairly high initial investment plan, but over time they are profitable and contribute to reduce carbon emissions. Knowing how and why we use energy at home is important to save money and take better advantage of our appliances. In fact, the latter has transformed and improved our daily lives, but it is also important to be more aware of how we consume energy to take care of both our pocket and the environment. Image | Unspash Xataka | The best way to heat the house: we analyze the spending and energy efficiency of heat pumps and heating

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