AI Is Eating the Planet's Electricity. And Portugal — and Rio Maior — Isn't Exempt.

Artificial intelligence has a problem no company wants to talk about openly: it consumes energy insatiably.

According to projections from the International Energy Agency (IEA), global data centers could consume more than 1,050 TWh of electricity in 2026, roughly the annual consumption of all of Japan. In 2024, that number was 415 TWh. The growth is brutal, and the world's electrical grid wasn't built to absorb it.

In the US, energy regulator FERC issued an urgent order in June to regional grids to propose reforms that speed up connecting large consumers, read: AI data centers, to the grid. In Ireland, data centers already account for 32% of national electricity consumption.

Portugal isn't immune. The country is betting heavily on AI adoption among small and medium businesses through the "IA nas PME" ("AI for SMEs") program under the PRR, with grants of up to €300,000 per company. In Rio Maior, where the business fabric is dominated by small and medium companies, some of which hold the PME Excelência seal, this adoption is taking its first steps.

But there's a reality that hasn't reached the local debate yet: every interaction with an AI model consumes energy. A ChatGPT request uses roughly 10 times more energy than a Google search. As businesses in Rio Maior and across inland Portugal fold AI tools into their processes, the collective energy footprint grows quietly.

The great irony of the AI revolution is this: the technology that promises to make the world more efficient may become one of the planet's biggest resource consumers. The question isn't whether Portugal will use AI. It's whether it will have enough energy to do it.