New gas-powered data centers could emit more greenhouse gases than whole nations

Post by red75prime » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 2:16 PM UTC

konschubert wrote: post #116

red75prime wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article discusses why LCOE is not a good estimate of the costs. Yes, combining different sources lowers the total cost (by damping intermittency). For Denmark it's offshore wind and solar in a 7 to 1 ratio (plus natural gas or biomethane power plants). > Nobody is suggesting to use solar as the sole source of electricity. You weren't clear on what you propose.

https://has-electricity-decoupled-yet.strommarktberatung.de Germany has a lot of solar. It's suppressing prices below the electricity price you would get with pure gas power generation.

Post by leonidasrup » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 2:34 PM UTC

bell-cot wrote: post #74

Zigurd wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please. Show me a nuke that was under 10 billion over budget and less than 20 years late. Seriously. Don't even try to insert nuclear power into the debate before you show it can be competently built, never mind safely run and waste safely disposed. But what about the French you say! The French are discovering they forgot to set aside money for decommissioning.

If you look at how much time and money the French poured into their nuclear plant construction project (and several other pre-decommissioning issues) things look rather less rosy. Also, it was a very high priority for France - keep in mind Napoleon's quote about the relative importance of moral and material. More critically: The logic of "The French did {extremely complex thing} fairly well in the late 1900's, theref…

Post by binary132 » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

beAbU wrote: post #112

usrusr wrote: post #42

And the sad part is that ai would be a perfect fit for intermittent energy sources: run inference 24/7 (on whatever you can muster, even if it's fossil it simply does not consume all that much compared to training) and over-build training to achieve whatever total throughout you need in time of energy abundance. How heavy would CO2 pricing have to be to make the market do this instead of the exact opposite?

Compute has massive initial capital requirements, and a very short obsolescence window. It does not make sense to invest in compute and then not run it 24/7 at 100%. Hardware sitting idle waiting for sunshine/wind is leaving money on the table. Especially if you can burn gas during that time and still be hugely profitable.

Post by shitlord » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 2:43 PM UTC

melling wrote: post #17

aresant wrote: post #9

The AI data center narrative is the perfect storm: First most of the data center build out is happening in areas that have had little other opportunity so local resistance is muted. Abilene, Texas is referenced and is the kind of place my grandfather would lovingly say is where you go to learn to be a “dirt farmer” Second, every environmentalist in the US is fighting 100 different battles with the most anti-regulatio…

Don’t forget environmentalists have been fighting against nuclear energy for decades. Update: Since I’m being downvoted I’m going to add a little sting: Good luck with your solar power web servers and skipping flights. Poor judgement really does have a price. It’s now inevitable that it’s going to get a bit warmer… everywhere. We’ll be lucky to hit Net Zero by 2100.

Post by reitzensteinm » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 3:38 PM UTC

red75prime wrote: post #113

konschubert wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is suggesting to use solar as the sole source of electricity. That would obviously be insane and then leads to silly numbers like the ones you gave. A MWh of solar is about 30 Euro/MWh if you levelize the capital costs.

The article discusses why LCOE is not a good estimate of the costs. Yes, combining different sources lowers the total cost (by damping intermittency). For Denmark it's offshore wind and solar in a 7 to 1 ratio (plus natural gas or biomethane power plants). > Nobody is suggesting to use solar as the sole source of electricity. You weren't clear on what you propose.