Why We’re Buying Coal
How the world’s dirtiest fuel is powering its cleanest technology.
Artificial intelligence is changing everything — from how we work to how we power the world.
But beneath the glossy surface of tech optimism lies a brutal truth: the future runs on energy.
And no matter how much we talk about renewables, nuclear, or hydrogen, the world still burns coal. A lot of it.
The Reality Beneath the Buzz
AI isn’t “clean.” It’s computationally hungry.
Training a single large language model consumes as much electricity as hundreds of homes use in a year.
Running that model, day after day, across millions of servers and data centers — that’s an energy sink on a scale most people can’t comprehend.
While Silicon Valley sells efficiency, the real story is power consumption.
Every chip that runs AI — from NVIDIA to AMD to Micron — pulls electricity from a grid that still leans heavily on fossil fuels.
Globally, coal still accounts for about one third of total energy consumption and nearly 40% of electricity generation.
That’s not declining — it’s stabilizing.
China, India, and Indonesia continue to build new coal plants. The U.S. still sources about 16–20% of its power from coal.
When grids strain — like during AI-driven demand spikes or summer heat waves — coal is the fallback. It’s the baseload power that doesn’t blink.
AI and the New Energy Reality
AI’s explosive growth has created a feedback loop:
Data centers drive demand for chips → chips drive electricity consumption → utilities turn to reliable baseload power → coal and natural gas fill the gap.
It’s not moral — it’s mechanical.
The world isn’t ready to power AI without the old infrastructure.