consumption

If with chatbots energy consumption had already skyrocketed, with agentic AI this consumption is multiplied by 136.5

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For a time, one of the controversies surrounding the consumption of artificial intelligence had to do with water. Some time later we learned that the calculations (even consuming a lot) They were not accurate and we begin to look at something so worrying: the tremendous amount of energy What data centers, and AI, need to function. It is something that is endangering the energy integrity of some countriesbut as AI approaches adolescence and agentic stagewe will enter a new phase. That of obscenely multiplied consumption. In short. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, or KAIST, has conducted a study in which he has quantified the energy cost of AI agents. Unlike a chatbot, which is a system to which we make a request, it gives us a result and that’s it, an agent is a chain of operation in which the software performs different actions autonomously. That, obviously, implies that the hardware that is moving that software spends more time doing things In the study, they measured the energy consumption of both chatbots and agents and concluded that, using a large-scale language model comparable to current commercial AI services, a single complex request to an agent consumed 348.41 Wh of electricity. depending The agent and model you use will also consume more or less. For example, a framewoprk called LATS used 62.1 times more energy in tests compared to an AI chatbot, while one on Meta’s Llama-3.1 Instruct 70B model consumed a peak of 136.5 times more per query. GPUs waiting (and consuming). There is another key, and it is time. Those queries consume more energy because more resources come into the picture and have estimated that agents take up to 153.7 times longer than conventional chatbots to process responses. During that time, GPUs remain idle more than half the time, but still consume electricity. They are not at full capacity, but they are “on guard” waiting for the response from external tools and websites so, when that response arrives, they start processing the data and performing the corresponding action. This issue of stopped GPUs is not new and a few weeks ago it was noted that the vast majority of the equipment that the hyperscalers had purchased They were doing nothing most of the time. The electrical network. And the problem is projection. Currently, this technology is in the era of chatbots, but the industry is moving towards agents. Right now platforms like Nvidia’s Vera Rubin just for that, and when they come into play, the study’s projection is that energy demand will reach an equivalent to half of the electricity consumption of the entire United States. It is estimated that in 2023, US data centers “barely” consumed 4.4% of the national total and will double by 2030, but KAIST’s estimates far exceed previous forecasts. Redesign. While those data centers continue to grow, the power grid cannot say the same. Renewables are not enough to satisfy the voracity of AI and we must resort to nuclear, gas and even coal and, in Europe, already we are seeing reactions of some countries that either move new data centers away from their large cities or reject them outright. The reason? Saturated networks and data centers that would have a demand greater than that of the population itself, generating problems in the energy infrastructure. It doesn’t look like the hyperscalers are addressing these issues because, as Jensen Huang himself, CEO of Nvidia, pointed out some time ago, it remains more than five years of wild investment in infrastructure for AIbut the South Korean study commented that a solution to energy demand would come from a redesign of the entire network. From microchips to AI models and the electrical infrastructure of data centers themselves. As if that were simple, and even more so now that Big Tech is in the race to deploy AI agents in both business and consumer applications. We’ll see if the power grid can keep up with that pace. In Xataka | Talking about artificial intelligence is talking about energy, and the fashionable term is ‘bragawatts’

Nvidia’s solution to reduce water consumption in data centers to zero aims to be genius: use hot water

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Nvidia has announced a system of liquid cooling very special. Above all, because the concept of “refrigeration” is a bit confused here. The company has managed to reinvent this type of systems, and according to those responsible “the challenge of water consumption for data centers it is practically solved.” That’s saying a lot… or isn’t it? Jacuzzi cooling. The own Nvidia engineers They begin the description of their system by talking about how in jacuzzis the water is usually between 38 and 40 ºC, a temperature that makes most people last about 15 minutes in them. And the funny thing is that Nvidia’s new AI servers can use liquid cooling with water that is even hotter: up to 45ºC (113ºF). That is precisely the key to making the entire system efficient. Goodbye to fans. Nvidia’s new Rubin architecture claims to be the first in the world with an end-to-end liquid cooling system. At Nvidia they seal the server boards and eliminate noisy fans that shoot noise levels above 85 decibels. Elementary physics. The concept behind this idea is counterintuitive, but also brilliant. The chips generate so much heat that a liquid composed of 75% water and 25% propylene glycol entering at 45ºC is capable of absorbing the thermal load dissipated by these chips. The fluid absorbs that heat and ends up leaving the circuit at around 55ºC without the performance of the processor degrading at all. Good for 45ºC. The key is that Nvidia starts from that starting temperature of the water, which is 45º. In a liquid cooling circuit in PCs, the liquid is usually between 25 and 30 ºC. Here Nvidia manages to ensure that with this initial temperature the thermal difference with the outside air is high enough for the system to work passively in most temperate climates. The heat is expelled by gigantic external radiators. Water is only needed on the first fill. Even more interesting is the fact that this water circuit only needs to be filled once for the entire useful life of the plant, at least in theory. This eliminates traditional systems that use evaporative cooling towers. These systems consume enormous amounts of water, and according to Nvidia this makes it possible to cut water consumption of data centers by almost 100%. But. Although Nvidia’s idea is promising, the company only talks about what happens within the four walls of data centers. The impact internally in the data center is extraordinary, but what about outside? The problem, they explain on TechCrunchis that data centers they need a lot of energyand both the generation of that energy and the creation of the chips themselves used in data centers can fold either triple to the consumption of the data center itself. The gas and coal bill. Although renewable energies are increasingly covering a greater part of the needs in these data centersthe use of coal and natural gas will continue to be very notable in these facilities. According to the International Energy Association (IEA), these two sources will continue to represent 40% of the total used in AI data centers until at least 2030. And the generation of both types of energy requires vast quantities of water: natural gas plants they use 1.17 liters of water for every kWh of electricity they generate. Coal ones are even worse, requiring 2.2 liters per kWh. Good news, but not so good. The system devised by Nvidia can solve the problem within data centers and is even promising when it comes to reduce noise levels generated by these facilities. However, there are still equally important challenges to ensure that water consumption in other phases of this cycle is not so colossal. It is a good step, without a doubt, but the room for improvement is still notable in this area. In Xataka | Jensen Huang has taken a look at the idea of ​​putting data centers in space and has come to one conclusion: let’s not freak out

Wine consumption has plummeted to lows not seen since 1957

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Almost seven decades. This is what you have to go back in the world wine chronicle to find a year in which the world consumed less wine than it drank in 2025. This is at least shown the balance which has just been published by the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV), an organization that boasts of bringing together 51 countries that account for 88% of the world’s wine production and that now cannot but note a trend that the sector has been viewing with suspicion for some time: the world seems less and less interested in the wineries. Your data is revealing. “Adapting to challenges”. Although corporate language usually avoids fatalism, the truth is that the OIV’s latest annual report does not leave much room for optimism. Its CEO, John Barker, claims that in recent years the wine sector “has been adapting to the constant climatic, economic and social challenges”, but the reality is that the global ‘photo’ of 2025 is not good. Consumption fell worldwide until reaching unseen lows for decades and things were not much better in world trade, where exports also suffered in both volume and value. Production did improve, although in a very discreet way and insufficient to approach the average that the sector has managed so far this century. Not only that. In general, today there are many fewer hectares cultivated with vineyards in the world than 25 years ago. Has consumption dropped that much? It seems that way if we trust the OIV, which estimates that in 2025 global wine consumption will amount to 208 million hectoliters. It may seem like a large sum, but it marks a drop of 2.7% with respect to 2024 and aggravates the ‘puncture’ that the sector has been registering since 2018, widening the collapse to reach 14%. The tables of the OIV show that never before has so little wine been drunk on the planet since (at least) 2000. And that is only what their latest balance shows. The EFE agency has reviewed the historical archive of the organization and assures that in 2025 consumption plummeted to the lows of 1957. Searching for the causes. As is usually the case, this ‘puncture’ is not explained by a single factor. Inflationary pressures, geopolitical tensions, interruptions in trade due to causes beyond the control of the sector or, if we go back to 2020, the effect of the pandemic come into play. In the cocktail however there is another ingredient taken by the OIV itself: “Changes in social habits and at a generational level” that directly affect consumer behavior, a trend that is seen above all among the young. If we focus on the world map The organization focuses above all on what is happening in three large markets. The first is China, where “the greatest contraction” is noted, with the loss of about two million hectoliters per year since 2018. As a reference, if in 2020 its consumption was estimated at 12.4 million, last year it was already around 4.8. The union has also noted a sustained decline in the French market and a “marked slowdown” in the US, which contracted 4.3% in 2025. The picture is not exactly good in the EU, which although it accounts for a large part of world consumption, reduced it by 3.1%. Global data 2020 2022 2025 Cultivated area (thousands of hectares) 7,388 7,236 7,034 Wine produced (Millions of hectoliters) 264 265 227 Wine Consumed (Millions of hectoliters) 232 228 208 A business less business. Another indicator in low hours is exports. Last year fell 4.7% in terms of volume, which extends the trend observed in the market since 2022. If we talk about hard dollars (value), the puncture was even greater: world exports moved 33.8 billion euros6.7% less than in 2024. Once again, these percentages are explained by a sum of factors that include fluctuations in demand, prices and “tariff uncertainty”; but also something much more basic: less is exported because fewer vines are planted and less wine is harvested. The footprint in fields and wineries. As for the first (the area with vineyards), in 2025 contracted 0.8% until it reaches seven million hectares. “It represents the sixth consecutive year of contraction,” remember the OIV. “This confirms a continuing adjustment in the global wine sector, driven by the clearing of vineyards in several major vine-producing countries in both hemispheres.” This trend helps to understand the decline that wine production has experienced, which although it rose a slight 0.6% last year, moving away from the historical minimum of 2024, is still 9.4% below the average for the last five years. The data is not explained solely by the loss of hectares. The weather also comes into play. Is everything negative? No. The OIV too has detected markets in which the trend is clearly positive, such as Portugal or Brazil, which has significantly expanded the area dedicated to vineyards and has also increased its production. Furthermore, although exports may have faltered in the last year, the organization recalls that the value of world trade remains at “significantly higher levels” than those recorded before the pandemic. A certain balance is also appreciated from the sector. “A third consecutive year of relatively low global production means that production and consumption are generally in balance, minimizing the impact of lower consumption on stock levels,” clarify from the OIV before remembering that their merchandise is not only destined for wineries where it is bottled and sold as wine. Every year around 30 million hectoliters are reserved for industrial uses, such as distillation or the production of vinegar, wine derivatives and spirits. Images | Svetlana Gumerova (Unsplash) and OIV In Xataka | The European Union believes it has a solution for the decline of wine in Spain: plucking the “green” grapes in La Rioja

We had a perfect plan to decarbonize the electrical grid. The brutal consumption of data centers has dynamited it

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The daily headlines multi-million dollar investments announced in new language models and cutting-edge chips. Venture capital investors have pumped more than half a billion dollars into AI startups over the last five years. But, as a revealing analysis warns of TechCrunchthe smart money has begun to change sides: today, the best investment in Artificial Intelligence is no longer software. The reality on the ground has become extremely arid. Putting up walls and stacking servers in a giant data center has become the easy part of the equation. The real wall the tech sector is crashing into is finding the electrons needed to power it. According to a report by the analysis firm Sightline Climateup to 50% of data center projects announced for 2026 could face delays. Of the 190 gigawatts (GW) of capacity the company tracks globally, just 5 GW are under actual construction today. The bottleneck is no longer the microchips. It is access to the electrical network. The tyranny of 24/7. Consumption has run amok at a pace that 20th century infrastructure cannot process. A Goldman Sachs analysis projects that AI will shoot energy consumption of data centers by 175% by 2030. The figures all point in the same direction: the Open Energy Outlook predicts that electricity demand combined data centers and crypto mining will grow by 350% this decade. As a result, the pristine image of the technological cloud is evaporating. Google’s emissions have increased by 48% in the last five years, and Microsoft’s by 31% since 2020. The reason? What is known in the industry as the “tyranny of 24/7”. The algorithms do not sleep and require a continuous and steady power supply; They cannot be turned off simply because the wind stops blowing or the sun sets. Given the lack of mass storage systems globally, the fuel that is covering this urgent gap is not green. It is natural gas, which has returned from retirement as the great structural support of the sector. A global collapse with two faces. The pressure has already broken the market balances. In the PJM region—which supplies 13 eastern US states and has the highest density of data centers in the world—capacity prices went from $30 to $270 in a single auction at the end of last year. As John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy, noted, we are facing a “golden era of energy demand”, but with an insurmountable physical limit: “the new electrons cannot reach the network quickly enough.” This electrical asphyxiation is redrawing the global map, and Europe is the best example. Historically, the European market was dominated by the “FLAP-D” markets (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin). But the network of these cities is no longer going strong. According to data from Greenpeacedata centers accounted for almost 80% of electricity consumption in Dublin, forcing Ireland to impose a moratorium. The market share of these traditional capitals will fall sharply by 2035causing a mass exodus to the Nordic countries (with unburdened networks and cold climates) and to southern Europe, such as Spain, Greece and Italy, in search of green megawatts. The hardware and network problem. When we scratch beneath the surface of this collapse, we discover that the physical problem splits into two large gaps. First, the machine to generate the energy is missing. Since intermittent renewables are not enough, companies turn to gas. However, gas turbines have become a rare commodity. Three years ago, Siemens Energy executives considered this market “dead”; Today, the factories are so overwhelmed that the delivery times for these turbines can extend up to seven years. Second, the “plumbing” is missing. Once the electricity is generated, the task of taming it within the building falls to the transformers. It is an iron and copper block technology that has barely changed in 140 years. As explained TechCrunchAs servers demand more power, traditional electrical equipment will take up twice as much space as the servers themselves. It is mathematically unsustainable. ‘Smart Money’ changes sides. Against this backdrop, venture capital is pivoting. Big tech companies (Amazon, Google, Oracle) are starting to behave like energy giants, devising alternatives to minimize their dependence on an outdated public grid through hybrid or generation approaches. on site. The solutions are divided into several fronts: The nuclear resurgence: Google has signed a pioneering agreement with Kairos Power to develop seven small modular reactors (SMR) by 2030, and Amazon tried (although regulators temporarily blocked it) connecting a data center directly to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant. Super batteries: Google is collaborating in Minnesota with the company Xcel Energy and the startup Form Energy to install batteries capable of discharging energy for 100 hours, thus stabilizing the peaks of renewables. Hardware innovation: Dozens of startups (such as Amperesand or DG Matrix) backed by investment funds are developing silicon-based “solid state” transformers, seeking to finally retire old iron and copper to save vital space in facilities. Regulatory surgery: In southern Europe, organizations such as the CNMC in Spain are applying “flexible access permits”, forcing centers to accept cuts in emergencies so as not to collapse the entire country. The paradox: AI as savior of the electrical system. However, the story has a fascinating twist. The same technology that today threatens to burn the cables of half the world could be the one that ends up saving the electrical system. According to the consultant’s estimates Deloittethe application of artificial intelligence to optimize industrial systems and electrical networks will save more than 3,700 TWh globally by 2030. That is, AI will save almost four times the energy consumed by all the data centers on the planet combined. A report of Ember over Southeast Asia (ASEAN) support thiscalculating that integrating AI into the management of its networks will save more than 67 billion dollars and avoid the emission of almost 400 million tons of CO2. But to get to that future of efficiency, you first have to turn on the machines today. And what is at stake is the world economic map. Hosting these centers is … Read more

In Vigo the hoteliers have decided that it is enough to occupy tables to just have a coffee. Solution: minimum consumption

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Friday afternoon. Spring time, you can almost smell summer. The bars in the terrace area of ​​your city are full, but you and your friends are lucky: suddenly you see a free table on the other side of the square. You rush to occupy it, but when the waiter arrives to take your order, it turns out that of the six of you in the group, only three are going to have something. “I’m sorry,” he responds, putting the notebook in his pocket. “You don’t reach the minimum”. The above is an invented scene, but it is becoming easier to find it in bars in Spain. Especially as the rents and the cost of goods makes it difficult for them to reach the coveted threshold of profitability. “Minimum and mandatory” consumption. The news advances it Vigo Lighthouse: Fed up with groups of customers who ‘colonize’ tables for hours and hours and only order a couple of soft drinks, Van Gogh, one of the most popular cafes in Vigo, has decided to require its customers to have a “mandatory minimum consumption.” The rule leaves little room for interpretation. It is announced with a sign hanging on the door of the premises. Their goal is also quite clear: improve the profitability of the business and avoid tourists who just want to use the bathrooms. “Everyone has to consume”. “The intention is that if six kids come to a table, not just two of them order something, but all of them. We had to take these measures because we are talking about an issue of profitability. Everyone who enters the establishment has to consume it,” explains the manager of the cafeteria, Jordi Casado, told the Galician newspaper. It is the waiters themselves who enforce the rule, as well as another one that the establishment applies: only two baby strollers are allowed inside. “Sometimes people are not aware that space costs money. A child in a stroller does not consume and takes the place of a person who would,” they point out from the premises, who also remember that cars can hinder the passage. Van Gogh is not the only business in the industry that applies minimum consumption regulations in Vigo. Lighthouse mentions another cafeteria in Calvario that also imposes certain conditions on days when there are media matches, such as those played by Celta, Madrid or Barça. Those in charge allow table reservations, but only for those who are going to dinner. “And those who come on their own, obviously, cannot spend two hours alone with a coffee, it is not profitable,” warns the person in charge of the bar. Does it only happen in Vigo? No. A quick look at the newspaper archive shows that, although it is not a majority practice, requiring a minimum consumption is beginning to become normal in the sector. In certain tourist spots (such as Barcelona or Ibiza) it dates back years backin some cases with high rates. Just a few months ago the newspaper The Gazette counted how an establishment in the center of Salamanca had adopted a similar rule, requiring its customers to consume at least one drink and a tapa per person at times of greatest demand (basically on Friday and Saturday nights). Click on the image to go to the tweet. A table, 10 euros. “Many people sat on the terrace for two hours with a water or a wine. In the end the bill was five or six euros. Meanwhile, there were lines of people waiting to sit down,” explained the owner of the local charro. “With those numbers it is impossible to keep a bar afloat.” in autumn ABC echoed another case similar: a bar that requires its clientele to spend at least five euros on League matches. Again it is not a unique case. Not long ago the ‘I’m a Waiter’ account sparked controversy by share a poster in which a bar announces its rates to compensate for “the high costs of broadcasting matches”: if you want a chair you have to pay ten euros. If we talk about a table for four it stays at €30, or €45 if it is for six. Pulling imagination. Minimum consumption is just one of the strategies with which hoteliers try to protect their profitability. Others go through adjust the price of the drinks depending on the time the customer occupies the tables (the more minutes, the more expensive the coffee is) or even veto who They go to bars alone, without companions. It is also not strange that in Spanish restaurants reservations are already made with an arrival and departure time. Bead Earrings. The objective is always the same: improve profitability in businesses that are still carrying the hangover of COVID and that in recent years have been marked by the increase in rentthe complications to find qualified labor and the increase in the cost of goods such as the coffee either cocoa. Added to this panorama is the crisis of some of the most successful ‘products’ in the sector, such as the cane either the menu of the dayand the growing competition from other markets. Today, for example, Mercadona already represents a rival to take into account for the bars. Image | Toa Heftiba (Unsplash) In Xataka | The bars promised them happily by filling their terraces with beer merchandising. Now they fear million-dollar losses

700 years of consumption to challenge China

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Whoever follows it, gets it. The world has embarked on the great adventure of finding rare earth anywhere to stop depending on China. Japan, with tense relations – to say the least – was one of the most interested, and has achieved what it been searching for two years: extract rich rare earth mud from about 6,000 meters deep. But it is one thing to find it and another to refine it on an industrial level. Success. Japan had a set schedule: its advanced Chikyu ship had to leave in January 2026 in search of rare earths. In 2024 they reported the discovery of what could be one of the largest deposits in the worldwith a prospecting for the beginning of 2026. The idea was to collect a sample of mud to see the composition, and the results could not have been more promising. ago uus daysnear Minami Torishima Island, Japan signed which is considered the first successful attempt to extract rare earth sediment at extreme depths. We are talking about some mud located in a pit at about 6,000 meters deep, where it is believed that there are a deposit of more than 16,000,000 tons of valuable material. It was an autonomous vehicle deployed at that depth that, using an unmanned excavator, circulated mud from that depth to the ship through a pipe. Similar to the technique used to prospect for oil and gas. Good rare earths. Rare earths are a set of 17 metals and elements that are essential for practically any industry today. From aerospace to medical devices, our mobile phones, electric cars or headphones themselves, they all need some of the metals from rare earths. But it turns out that some are more valuable than others. It is estimated that the lands of the Minami Torishima site stand out due to its concentration in dysprosium and terbium. These two are particularly rare and valuable because they are used in vehicle engine magnets and defense technologies. They also have a certain concentration of yttrium, which is used for lasers or superconductors. The rare earth war. As we read on Al Jazeera, Japan is ecstatic. A government spokesperson commented that this is “a significant achievement both for the country’s economic security and for its maritime development.” And the truth is that the discovery could not have come at a better time for Japan. We have already commented that China is the one that dominates rare earths. Not only its mining, but its production. For decades we have let China refine them because the process is very polluting and the laws in the Asian giant were somewhat more lax. The price has been high: the entire world industry depends on China, and China has not hesitated to use rare earths as a weapon when it has come under attack. For example, in the context of the technological war or with tariffs. liberally. And, speaking of context and war, the Pacific is abuzz. China claims Taiwan and some islands held by Japan while build artificial islands with varied purposes. Japan, meanwhile, has allied itself with a United States that is testing weapons in the area and deploying maritime units. And, furthermore, they are rearming. For that they need rare earths and, on January 6, China prohibited the export of all double items use to Japan. This implies anything that can be used to improve Japanese military capabilities. The order came after the Japanese Prime Minister announced that any action by China in Taiwan It would be responded to in a warlike manner by Japan. The Chinese statement did not specify which exports would be affected, but the Chinese media suggested that heavy rare earths were in the equation. Consumption for a while. That is, in the current context, it is not a whim for Japan to stop depending on China for the production of rare earths: it is a necessity. And there are already media outlets like the Nikkei that have described the deposit as the third largest reserve of rare earths in the world. Estimates point to more than 16,000,000 metric tons of rare earth oxides, something that would satisfy domestic consumption for several generations. For example, it point that there will be more than 730 years of Japanese consumption of dysprosium and more than 420 years of local consumption of terbium. Way to go. Now, Japan has found the clue, but now it is time to confirm the estimates and, above all, start extracting and refining these rare earths. That will be the task of researchers this year to, in 2027, begin carrying out large-scale extraction tests. The idea is to get 350 tons of mud a day. Then everything has to be loaded by boat to Minami Torishima, where a first cleaning of the sludge will be carried out to separate the valuable from the mud and, then, transportation to the continent, where the refining process will take place. With everything in hand, wait that the Japanese government publishes an economic viability report by March 2028. and red flags. It is evident that Japan’s announcement is hopeful both for its independence and for the rest of the world to begin to do something with the deposits it has been finding with the aim of achieving sovereignty in rare earths. But there are also challenges ahead. On the one hand, it esteem that each ton of sludge produces just two kilos of rare earth oxides. This means that enormous volumes of material have to be processed to separate the ‘wheat from the chaff’. Then there is the refining process itself, something pollutant due to what is necessary to do it and the waste that is emitted. And finally, the worry for the habitat destructionspecifically deep-sea ecosystems that, according to environmental groups, would receive an irreversible impact. And since we are what we eat, and more countries like China or Japan than They need fish with no possible alternativeclouds of particles from the seabed can affect the food … Read more

The owner of Mercadona believes that in a few years kitchens will disappear from homes. The consumption of precooked foods proves him right

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The forecast sounded so far-fetched, it clashed to such an extent with the gastronomic tradition of Spain, that it generated a considerable stir. Just a year ago, during the presentation of Mercadona’s accounts, Juan Roig surprised by predicting death (almost) imminent of domestic kitchens. “I said it and I maintain it: in the middle of the 21st century there will be no kitchens,” cried the businessman. In the future imagined by Roig we go from making our own food in the vitro at home to taking it already prepared from supermarkets, which have become an absolute reference for food. The sector data They confirm that, no matter how dystopian Roig’s prophecy sounds, it seems to be coming true. A percentage: 3.8%. Spain is a benchmark for the Mediterranean diet. But also, and increasingly, a country of families who are no longer willing to spend hours and hours in the kitchen. That’s what it suggests at least. the last balance of the Spanish Association of Prepared Meal Manufacturers (Asefapre). According to the data of the sector, in 2025, ready-made foods “reinforced their weight in the shopping basket”, with an increase in consumption of 3.8%. In total, 715,052 tons of prepared meals were sold, “a new record,” recalls Asefapre, which consolidates the trend of the last decade. Translated into hard and fast euros, sales rose to 4,309 million, with an annual increase of 5%. A figure: 18 kilos a year. To give us an idea of ​​what this growth means, Asefapre calculates that last year each Spaniard ate on average about 18 kilos of prepared dishes. As a reference it is almost the same amount of fish products that we Spaniards consume in our homes (another thing is the restaurants) throughout 2024. The difference between precooked and fish is that the demand for the latter takes time to increase. low hours (both fresh and frozen) while the former grows at a good pace. The latest balance sheet of the employers’ association reflects an annual increase of 4.7% in the consumption of prepared foods, a growth rate that comfortably exceeds that of food as a whole (0.6%). What do we eat? Asefapre segregate your data of sales, which offers us an interesting vision of what exactly we Spaniards consume. The cake goes to “refrigerated” products, with a sales volume of 330,602 t shipped in 2025, 5% more than the previous year. In second place are “frozen products”, with sales that amounted to 297,023 t (+2.5%). The “dishes prepared at room temperature”, very common in some supermarket chains, are quite far behind, with 87,426 tons sold, but they leave an interesting fact: their demand grew by 4.1%. From pizza to potatoes and pasta. If we go down to detail we see that what we Spaniards like most (at least it is what we demand most) are pizzas, the leading producer in the sector with a sales volume that amounted to 131,600 tons. They are followed by frozen potatoes, with 98,056 t, and pasta-based dishes, which totaled 72,405 t. The three categories grew, with sales increases ranging between 2.6 and 7.2%. Beyond the Spanish market, one fifth (21.4%) of the industry’s production ends up being exported. More than just strategy. At this point the question is obvious: Why do we buy more and more pre-cooked foods? What leads us to feed ourselves with prepared dishes, whether frozen, refrigerated or food sold at room temperature ready for consumption, like what Mercadona offers in its supermarkets? The answer is complex. On the one hand there is the sector’s strategy, which has increased and perfected its range of products, adding foreign dishes that aim in part at the growing population immigrant living in Spain. Beyond the efforts of the industry, the increase in consumption of prepared dishes also responds to profound changes at a social and cultural level. They increase the single-person householdsit gets complicated conciliation between professional and family life and even change the kitchen structure in the houses. Also our way of thinking, as Asefapre herself remembers: today it no longer ‘squeaks’ at us that they serve us a pre-cooked dish on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve or that in families there are no longer people willing to lock themselves between the stoves. Of new grandmothers and homes. “Grandmas are not like they used to be and prefer to go walking with friends, do pilates or travel,” he reflected during the presentation of the balance sheet the president of Asefapre, David Aldea. It is not the only cultural change he cited. Added to this are others, such as the fact that it is increasingly easier to find “homes with fewer members” or homes in which the space dedicated to cooking has been reduced to a minimum. The trend seems to confirm Roig’s prediction, which a year ago I already confirmed the good progress of Mercadona’s business line for ready-to-eat dishes, launched in 2018. “It is profitable and continues to grow.” Images | Andalusian Government (Flickr), Mercadona and Asefapre In Xataka | Mercadona has grown so much in Spain that for the US it is no longer just a supermarket chain: it is a “cultural phenomenon”

This graph shows per capita coffee consumption and leaves us with a disturbing question: what is happening in Luxembourg?

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Be it for your energetic effectsby its benefits in the body or even for their psychological effectscoffee is the second most consumed beverage in the world. Is one of the engines of the economy of countries like Colombia or Brazil, as well as a thermometer of global economic health. Coffee culture continues to expand, and in this graph we can see which countries whose inhabitants drink the most coffee every day. There is only one question: what about Luxembourg. Europe >> others. Despite not being producers (although climate change may change that sooner rather than later), Europe gives the rest of the world a review of coffee consumption. Including powers like Brazil, Costa Rica or Colombia. The top 10 positions in coffee consumption correspond to European countries, and except for Greece, which has managed to sneak into the TOP, they are all northern countries. Outside of that ranking we find a country that may be unexpected: Lebanon. Then we have Brazil, Canada and another string of European countries. But if there is a proper name on this list, it is Luxembourg. Luxembourg has a trick. Visual Capitalist has created the graph taking the data from Cafely. After an impressive display of figures, they detail that they have taken data from sources such as the International Coffee Organization, as well as from Wikipedia to calculate per capita consumption and from global surveys of more than 4,000 people. All this has led them to calculate that Luxembourg drinks coffee. And a lot. That each person, on average, drinks 5.31 cups a day seems outrageous. It does not reach worrying levels of caffeine consumption (There are drinks that are not coffee and have much more caffeine), but it is a fact that draws attention. However, there is a trick: Luxembourg’s per capita figure is explained because almost half of those who work in the country live abroad and drink coffee on the road, as well as to stay awake, and although they are not the country’s population, that consumption has been taken into account for Luxembourg’s totals. 5.31 coffees a day implies 118,227 cups that each person drinks throughout their life, and is well above other countries: Cups consumed throughout life Money spent throughout life Luxembourg 118,227 425,618 Finland 83,939 335,756 Sweden 58,612 216,863 Norway 58,159 255,900 Austria 45,198 149,153 Denmark 44,676 241,250 Swiss 42,318 211,591 Netherlands 39,854 123,548 Greece 37,449 116,092 (27) Spain 23,988 46,057 (28) Costa Rica 22,229 56,683 (39) venezuela 12,844 20,423 (41) Colombia 12,264 13,981 a fortune. The average price per cupFurthermore, it is not cheap at all. Not counting atrocities that can be paid in countries like Japan (it is not a product either and transportation is expensive) or Dubai (because… it’s Dubai), the average price of a cup in northern European countries is quite high. Contrast with the average price as we go down to Portugal, Italy or Spain. And more interesting than the average price of a cup It is the account of the money we spend on coffee throughout our lives, which we can also see in the table above. The great absentee. It may be striking that countries like Mexico have a consumption of just 0.29 cups, but along with Guatemala, Argentina or Peru, it is one of the countries with the least roots in coffee. For example, it esteem that each Mexican consumes 2.1 kilos of coffee per year, while Colombians increase the figure to 4.2 kilos. But the big absentee on this list is… China. The Asian giant is not a traditional coffee consumer, but things are changing. There is not only multitude of cafes and chains like Luckin Coffee that are present practically on every corner of a big city, but they are leading the greatest growth in the region in opening of new brand cafes. And they are not only emerging in the region: China is taking over tons of coffee from Brazil due to a market that is growing at double-digit speed since 2010, with a growth annual average of more than 20%, which is well above a world average that barely reaches 2% But anyway, there is no one to blame Luxembourg. And if at some point they blame you for drinking a lot, you can now say that you are trying to raise the average for your country in this curious competition. In Xataka | The latest craze for weight loss is adding mushrooms to coffee. Science is not clear that it is a good idea

After electrifying cars, China is targeting trucks. It is a slap in the face to global diesel consumption

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China is one of the oil monsters. Not so much in generation, where they want to start being a powerbut in consumption. It is the fuel of hundreds of millions of vehicles They hit the road every day, but things are changing. Although the Asian giant has become one of the powers in car electrification, diesel seemed to have a break thanks to trucks. Not even that anymore. Diesel down. China is second diesel consumeronly behind the United States. transportation concentrate between 70 and 80% of that final consumption, but in recent years, the market has been going down. It is estimated that, in June 2024, diesel consumption fell to 3.9 million barrels per day. It’s still stupid, but it was 11% less than during the same period the previous year. It was the biggest drop since mid-2021 (logical because of the pandemic and the world situation) and despite the industrialization of the country and the rise of both national and international trade, this consumption has remained at a “plateau” for more than a decade. That is to say: it should be much greater than 10 years ago, but that is not the case. Another fact: in August 2024, 8% of new trucks were electric, but in August 2025, the figure was 28%. electric trucks. He rise of electric cars could explain this negative trend in diesel consumption, but as we say, the boats and, above all, trucks continued to support the market. That is no longer so clear, especially with the recent involvement of the Government. In April this year, the Ministry of Transport published, with the support of other government departments, a program to encourage the majority of new truck sales to be new energy by 2035. To achieve this, there are objectives, such as that by 2027 the share of electrical energy in final transport consumption must be 10% and the proportion of new new energy vehicles must be increased each year. The heavy truck seemed to be the bastion of diesel, but now it is one of the central pieces of this decarbonization of transportation. Paradigm shift. To achieve this, in addition to direct aid for the purchase of heavy electric trucks, China has launched a specific action to eliminate and replace old diesel trucks, with subsidies for their removal and replacement with new energy units. In fact, there are advantages: freer access to restricted urban areasfewer time limitations and discounts on tolls. In a report by The Associated Press This paradigm shift is reflected: if in 2020 almost all new trucks in China were diesel, by 2025 electric trucks already represent 22% of new heavy truck sales. As our colleagues point out Motorpassionthe arrow is inverse to that of diesel consumption: in the same period of 2024, that percentage was 9.2%. And the load? It represents a paradigm shift and there are analysts who predict that, by 2026, diesel will only account for 40% of sales. The rest: electric and gas trucks. Is the charging infrastructure? Because we are seeing advances in the development of solid state batteries that will allow greater autonomy, but until they arrive, it is necessary that there be numerous charging points to support the electrification of transport. The National Energy Administration and the Ministry of Transportation have already affirmed that 98% of highway service areas already have charging points, with widespread installation of 120 kW chargers and, in some segments, 600 and 800 kW chargers. The intention is for there to be some 28 million charging points throughout the country by 2027, and one of the key pieces in that expansion is CATL. The company is one of those leads the battery sector worldwideand is currently tracing a “green corridor” that will cover the major freight hubs to facilitate loading, but also to implement its battery exchange system that speeds up the process. Green curve… and economic. This electrification of commercial transportation would add to the objectives of decarbonization of the countrybut obviously truckers and companies also see a benefit in their pockets, or so they esteem. Although electric trucks are between two and three times more expensive than diesel trucks and cost 18% more than LNGare more efficient, have less maintenance and can help save between 10% and 26% over their useful life. Horizon. This change to the electrification of trucks would already be reducing the demand for oil in the equivalent of more than a million barrels per day, and that a giant like China stops depending on crude oil for its trucks is something that can shake the market internationally. And that ambition is not going to stay within its borders. If in recent months we have seen that China has flooded Europe with his electric carswe can expect something similar for 2026, but with trucks. And, furthermore, it has torn off in Hungary the construction of a factory for electric trucks and buses. It is evident that this path started by cars will be followed by trucks, which in the end are a important source of emissions in a world with increasingly global trade. Specificallya third of all transport-related carbon emissions in 2019. Images | Volvo, Cheng Long In Xataka | China’s energy paradox: an ‘electrostate’ that continues to feed on coal

Drastically reduce the consumption of data centers is crucial for AI. And China has had an idea: to submerge them in the sea

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China is About to submerge a data center In the sea, near Shanghai, as a solution to a problem that we will gradually begin to see more: Great energy consumption of the AI. The installation, which will come into operation in mid -October, is one of the first commercial projects of this type in the world and points to a new way of cooling servers without depending on traditional cooling systems that devour electricity. The background problem. Data centers are the backbone of the Internet and AI, but They generate huge amounts of heat. Keeping them refrigerated by air conditioning or evaporation of water consumes a brutal amount of energy, and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the demand of these facilities has shot. China seeks to reduce the carbon footprint of this critical infrastructure, and its commitment It goes through sinking it underwater. How it works. The yellow capsule that They have built Near Shanghai houses servers that remain cold thanks to the ocean currents, without the need for active cooling systems. According to Yang Ye, vice president of Highlander, the maritime company that develops the project with state companies, “underwater operations have inherent advantages” and can save approximately 90% of the energy for refrigeration. The installation will extract almost all its electricity from nearby marine wind farms, with more than 95% renewable energy. The technical challenges. Putting servers under the sea is not easy. They must be protected from the corrosion of salt water, for which they use a special coating with glass scales on the steel capsule. Also They have installed An elevator that connects the main structure with a section that remains on the water, allowing the access of maintenance equipment. Another challenge is to build the Internet connection between the Submarine and Tierra Firme Center, a more complex process than with conventional facilities. Universities researchers in Florida and Japan They have warned In addition to these centers could be vulnerable to attacks by sound waves driven by water. Environmental doubts. Although the project promises to reduce emissions, questions remain about its ecological impact. The heat emitted by servers could alter the surrounding marine ecosystem, attracting some species and driving others. Andrew Want, marine ecologist from Hull University, Point out That “these are unknown aspects at this time, sufficient research is not yet being carried out.” Highlander says that an independent 2020 evaluation on its test project in Zhuhai indicated that the water remained well below the acceptable temperature thresholds, but Shaolei Ren, an expert from the University of California in Riverside, warns That climbing these centers will also climb the heat emitted. There are few precedents. Microsoft tested this technology off the coast of Scotland in 2018, recovering the capsule in 2020 after declaring that The project had been completed successfully. However, he never marketed it. The Chinese project advances with the support of government subsidies: Highlander received 40 million yuan for A similar project in the province of Hainan in 2022, which is still operational. The installation of Shanghai will serve clients such as China Telecom and a state computing company of AI. What comes now. Experts agree that these underwater centers will probably not replace the traditional ones, but will complement the existing infrastructure in specific niches. According to Rencurrent projects seek to demonstrate “technological viability”, but much remains to be resolved before a massive deployment. What is clear is that, if these types of projects face all technological challenges and manage to greatly reduce the energy consumed of the data centers, it will be a great point in favor for the company that manages to provide its solution in the AI ​​race. Cover image | AFP In Xataka | China was the great pollut the planet: now it is emerging as the first “electrostate” in history

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