Lake Tahoe Power Crunch Shows AI’s Growing Energy Toll in West

Lake Tahoe has long been a refuge for Silicon Valley’s tech elite, from Mark Zuckerberg to Larry Ellison. Now the artificial intelligence boom behind much of that wealth is straining the region’s power market, pushing up costs for residents in the lakeside towns below.

Energy-hungry data centers across the border in Nevada are adding pressure to the market serving roughly 50,000 electricity customers on the California side of the lake. By the local utility’s own sample-bill calculation, the cost of keeping the lights on at home has surged about 77% since late 2022 — approaching twice the national residential average. ...