Ukraine's power supply close to critical as Russian strikes bring darkness and cold Daryna Kulchytska is a mum under pressure. A single parent in a seventh floor flat in Kyiv trying to feed two lively kids and ensure they do their homework. But Daryna also faces the added strain of a deadline she can't even be certain of. All she knows is soon the lights will go out, the sockets will lose power, the wi-fi will drop, and the taps will run dry. Tonight, the electricity has kept flowing an hour longer than advertised, but Daryna's still racing to serve dinner and finish her own work from home.

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Big Tech sees a culture war over progress. But the real fault line is electricity: drawing it from the grid and generating it onsite provoke different kinds of backlash, neither easily solved by public relations. As voters went to the polls across the US last week, I was in Ashburn, Virginia, part of what's known as Data Center Alley--the world's largest data center hub. It's also where the backlash now sweeping the country arguably first began taking shape. Driving through it is surreal. Concrete monolithic buildings loom along every major road, with names like Skybox and CloudHQ.

Follow this author to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW? Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens. Dr. Bill Frist is a heart and lung surgeon, former U.S. Senate majority leader, and Chair of the Global Board of Directors for The Nature Conservancy nonprofit. He has emerged as a prominent Republican advocate for climate action, seeking to bridge the partisan divide by emphasizing how protecting the environment benefits human health.

One of the biggest races in the nuclear power industry is to commercialize small modular reactors--which, at a fraction of the size of a traditional nuclear plant, can still produce about a third of the power of a standard reactor. The hype around this next generation of nuclear power hinges on the promise of providing AI data centers with all the energy they could possibly need. And with a market cap currently over $4 billion, at time of publishing, Oklo is one the hyperscalers are watching closely. Founded by couple Caroline and Jacob DeWitte in 2013, the company began construction last year on its Aurora "powerhouse" fast-fission power plant in Idaho and hopes to have it operational by 2028. Oklo, which was backed by Sam Altman before he launched OpenAI and has close ties to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, has benefitted from the Trump Administration's push to accelerate nuclear power development.

As AI data centres guzzle energy, can we harness their wasted heat? Share As AI data centres guzzle energy, can we harness their wasted heat? on social media As the rapid growth of AI data centres compounds the world's energy crisis, engineers in Denmark have found a way to make use of the vast amounts of "waste heat" generated by these centres, which is usually lost to the outside air. There are more than 12,500 data centres around the world and more are coming online every day, straining global energy infrastructure and resources. Beyond consuming hundreds of billions of litres of water, these systems not only place a massive demand on the global electrical grid, but are likely to be contributing to global warming on a massive scale as well. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has reported that, in 2024, data centres used 485 terawatt hours of electricity, the equivalent of 1.5 percent of the world's total energy supply - or the total electricity generation of Germany.

Is the war entering a new phase? Russia and Ukraine have traded drone attacks on each other's infrastructure, causing injuries on both sides. Moscow said on Thursday that it struck a postal logistics hub, a power substation and a cargo ship, while Ukrainian drones set off fires in an industrial zone in the Russian city of Ryazan, about 200km (125 miles) southeast of the capital. It said it also struck a 330-kilovolt substation in the Dnipropetrovsk region and a dry cargo ship carrying military equipment in the Black Sea, 52km (32 miles) southwest of the port of Odesa. Ukrainian officials did not immediately confirm the strikes on the postal terminal or the vessel.

AI data centres could undermine UK's emissions goals Image caption, Four planned "hyperscale" data centres are already considering using gas-fired power to meet their electricity needs The UK government's ambition of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 could be undermined by its new deal on AI data centres, according to BBC research. During Wednesday's Budget speech, Chancellor John Healey said data centres would be allowed to build onsite power generation while they wait for a grid connection. BBC File on 4 Investigates has discovered that four planned "hyperscale" data centres - including three in the south of England - are already considering using gas-fired power to meet their electricity needs, creating more CO2 than the cities of Manchester, Liverpool and Southampton combined. Labour MP Toby Perkins, who chairs the Environmental Audit Select Committee, said a substantial increase in the use of natural gas "can't be the future". "Government absolutely shouldn't be in the business of just saying anyone who wants to bring it here, can do whatever you like to power it, because that is not acceptable," he said.

AI's real bottleneck is electricity. Who will pay for it? Share AI's real bottleneck is electricity. Who will pay for it? Within a week, two of the three largest cloud computing companies in the world signed 20-year contracts for nuclear electricity.

Transformers are a crucial but nearly invisible part of our grid. The devices help efficiently move power across long distances, but they're complicated and in short supply. And given that their basic design hasn't changed much for about a century, they could use an upgrade. As the world races to meet rising electricity demand from EVs, data centers, and more, researchers and companies are looking to modernize transformers. New, solid-state versions could help relieve some of the supply concerns and make sure the grid can handle the growing pressure. Conventional transformers generally rely on huge amounts of specialized steel alloys and miles of copper wire to do their work of transferring electricity between circuits. Solid-state models, in comparison, combine magnetic components with high-power semiconductors, making them more compact and allowing for more control over the flow of electricity. These devices are still in development, and can't replace all traditional transformers today, especially the largest ones that work at the high voltages necessary for long-distance transmission. But a new generation of transformer technology could be a crucial part of our future grid.