Digital Futures researcher Anna Furberg is one of the featured guests in the latest episode of Ellevio’s Electrification Podcast, now openly available on Spotify. The episode (in Swedish), titled “AI, data centers, and the power grid – threat, hype, or sustainable solution?”, explores the rapidly expanding role of artificial intelligence and data centers in Sweden’s energy landscape.
With AI development accelerating and large-scale data center projects emerging across the country, the episode takes listeners to Dalarna, where EcoDataCenter is building what may become Europe’s largest AI initiative. Together with host Kristofer Fröjd, Head of Strategy and Business Development at Ellevio, and John Wernvik, Sustainability Manager at EcoDataCenter, Furberg helps unpack the claims, concerns, and complexities surrounding AI’s energy use and climate implications.
Furberg contributes her expertise as a researcher at KTH focusing on the environmental impacts of digitalization. Her work, including the Digital Futures Industrial Postdoc project Environmental impacts of digitalization based on life-cycle assessment, examines how digital technologies influence sustainability across sectors. She applies life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle thinking to provide a deeper understanding of both current and future environmental impacts of ICT, with projects funded by KTH Digital Futures, the KTH Climate Action Centre, Ericsson, and Formas.
In the episode, the guests discuss topics ranging from cooling technologies and residual heat use to grid investments, flexibility markets, and the growing energy demands of Sweden’s industrial transformation and AI boom. The conversation concludes with a fast-paced “myth bingo,” where the panel addresses common misconceptions about AI and energy.
Furberg holds an MSc in Chemical Engineering with Engineering Physics from Chalmers University of Technology and a PhD in Environmental Systems Analysis from the same institution. Her doctoral work focused on the life cycle impacts of hard materials, and she later worked as a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Sustainability Research (NORSUS). In 2022, she received the SETAC Europe Young Scientist LCA Award.
The episode – in Swedish – is available to stream on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/47Fve7LnnbyCR7x4BOiQij?si=ef930569bc264156
Photo: left to right – Jonatan Björck, John Wernvik, Anna Furberg och Kristofer Fröjd.
