Energy
Photovoltaic Cell (Solar Cell)
A photovoltaic cell converts light directly into electricity through the photovoltaic effect. Photons absorbed in a doped semiconductor knock electrons loose, and a built-in electric field at a p-n junction sweeps the freed charges into an external circuit. Single-junction silicon cells are capped near 33% by the Shockley-Queisser limit, with commercial modules reaching roughly 20-25%.
International Energy Agency (IEA)
Paris-based intergovernmental organisation founded in 1974 after the oil crisis, originally to coordinate emergency oil stocks. The IEA publishes the World Energy Outlook and other reference reports on global energy supply, demand, and policy, and is widely cited for its data on electricity, renewables, and AI-driven data-center demand.
Data Center Electricity Consumption and AI Workloads
Global data centers consumed roughly 460 TWh of electricity in 2022, with IEA projections of 620 to over 1,000 TWh by 2026 — the upper bound equivalent to all of Japan's annual electricity use. AI workloads are the principal swing factor, and consumption is geographically concentrated in a handful of grid pockets that are already showing strain.
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
Nonprofit research organisation funded by member utilities, founded 1972 in Palo Alto. EPRI publishes widely cited research on electricity generation, grid reliability, and the energy demand of emerging loads — including the 2024 "Powering Intelligence" report that became a primary external reference for AI query energy use.
Watt-Hour (Wh)
Unit of energy equal to one watt of power sustained for one hour, or 3,600 joules. Watt-hours and their multiple the kilowatt-hour are the standard units for metering electricity, and have become the conventional way to report the energy intensity of digital services such as LLM queries and web searches.