Bitcoin Miner and Siemens Collaborating on Energy Management for GPU-Driven AI Workloads
Key Highlights
- The project will utilize Siemens' electrical controls and monitoring technology to optimize renewable energy use and ensure grid stability.
- Powered by wind energy, Project Grace aims to demonstrate scalable solutions for AI workloads driven by GPU demands.
- The collaboration seeks to capture performance data to improve behind-the-meter infrastructure for AI and renewable energy integration.
Soluna Holdings, which builds renewable-powered Bitcoin mining and data centers named after historic female scientists, will partner with energy technology giant Siemens on developing behind-the-meter and control systems to deal with rapid, graphics processing unit (GPU)-driven swings in power demand when running artificial intelligence computing.
The companies signed a memorandum of understanding on teaming up for a 2-MW pilot project at Soluna’s Project Grace in Texas. The collaboration will integrate Siemens’ electrical infrastructure, controls and monitoring technology to document performance during fast load steps and variable demand scenarios.
AI demand is accelerating, but GPU-driven workloads can create rapid swings in power demand that challenge stability and power quality in behind-the-meter environments powered by renewables. At the Project Grace site, Soluna and Siemens will use the pilot to capture performance data and operational learnings under representative workloads.
“One of the biggest challenges to scaling AI technology is the amount of compute power it demands,” said John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna Holdings, in a statement. “The value of this partnership is the opportunity to solve that challenge with infrastructure that already exists. We can tap into clean energy that would otherwise go unused, at a competitive cost to grid power, to create a win-win for power providers and customers.”
Project Grace is a 2-MW pilot and Soluna’s first direct connection to anticipating impacts of AI demand. The computing center will be powered by nearby wind energy capacity and is named after Grace Hopper, a code-breaking computer scientists, U.S. Navy rear admiral and pioneer in the theory of programming language.
Soluna also has built Bitcoin and data mining facilities named in honor of other female scientists such as Kati Kariko, Dorothy Vaughn and Sophie Wilson. Each of these data facilities paired with co-located or nearby renewable energy farms.
Various reports indicate that a majority of commercial and industrial companies already are using generative AI in their businesses, and the number will grow. AI factories also consume vast amounts of energy and may add close to 125 GW in electricity demand by the early 2030s.
“We believe AI has become foundational to every industry, and we’re focused on removing today’s roadblocks so the technology can scale responsibly,” said Brian Dula, President of Electrification and Automation at Siemens Smart Infrastructure USA. “This pilot with Soluna allows us to test, validate, and demonstrate what’s possible when renewable energy and existing infrastructure are optimized to power AI, both today and in the future.”
A report last year by the St. Louis Federal Reserve echoes the consensus that corporate and personal use of AI agents is already skyrocketing beyond even adoption of the personal computer decades ago. Companies across all sectors are accelerating their adoption of agentic and generative AI.
“We firmly believe it is not a bubble,” James Lee, partner at private equity giant BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners investment wing, said during an AI-focused keynote at the Schneider Electric Innovation Summit North America this past November in Las Vegas. “There are strong fundamentals, first in the rapid acceleration of adoption. . . That adoption is driving real revenue.”
About the Author
Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor
Managing Editor
For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].
Rod Walton has spent 17 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.
Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World.
EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023
Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.