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Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

theregister.com

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Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#131

Post by wat10000 »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #103
slowin wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are entitled to a benefit from your tax dollars being spent. Otherwise, it's just theft.

No, no you arent. Money given without strings attached is just that. Claiming ownership of another humans labor is called slavery. It might be evidence that you or your government isn't benefiting you with its spending. That doesnt put obligation on the recipient.

Does the same reasoning apply to student loans? Is the lender engaging in slavery by claiming entitlement to a portion of the student’s future labor?

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#132

Post by hunterpayne »

teamonkey wrote: post #79
antonvs wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do Ireland's data centers objectively "guzzle" electricity? I don't have any problem with The Register, but reporting laden with value-judging adjectives is not objective.

Objectively, yes. It means to consume excessive or plentiful amounts of something, and 23% of Ireland’s electricity generation capability is objectively an excessive and plentiful amount.

Objectively no, 23% of nothing is nothing. Ireland has no industry. Their grid is smaller than a major city's grid. That this is 23% says a lot more about the size of the Irish grid and their lack of industry than it does about how much energy a datacenter uses.

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#133

Post by hunterpayne »

trollbridge wrote: post #16
toomuchtodo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Unwanted industrial users consuming over 1/5th Ireland's electricity." (Ireland has challenges getting enough renewable energy to the island, as well as connecting the northern and southern parts with transmission due to local citizens not friendly to the need for transmission infra; data centers do not belong in Ireland, build them in countries in Europe that have excess clean energy, Spain and France specifically,…

Yeah, but Ireland has a looser regulatory environment where it’s easier for a data centre operator to buy off the relevant government regulators.

Which is most of Ireland's economy. I am fine with pulling the plug on them. They are not. I mean, who wants to lose 2/3rd of their GDP overnight?

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#134

Post by hunterpayne »

dymk wrote: post #117
hunterpayne wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's 7x the cost that I pay in the Pacific NW. Where are you?

I'm in the PNW and I pay 11c/kWh (well, I would, if I didn't have solar). Seattle is 13c, King County averages 16c. Where are you paying 5c/kWh? That's exceptionally cheap.

Near Vancouver.

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#135

Post by cadamsdotcom »

Just to be contrarian: what we're talking about is "electricity use from economic activity". This should be good for Ireland but they'll need to build energy capacity to keep up.

It's misplaced to be angry about datacenters themselves. There IS value being created, or people wouldn't use the tools.

Construction creates jobs, manufacturing the machines in the buildings is a huge global industry; the value people gain in their work and play is considered worthwhile by them individually.

In the aggregate it all happens in a boring building shaped like a box, mostly built out of the way for economic reasons, and which if well engineered can be pretty efficient for what it does for the human race.

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#136

Post by hunterpayne »

coldtea wrote: post #123
hunterpayne wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credibility is a thing. Articles like this burn it quite quickly. It really is past time that the scientific community needs to make a public statement rejecting these types of "journalists".

The scientific community has burned a lot of credibility itself to make any kind of statement to that effect.

That's the thing, the popular impression is that this is the case. But if you read what scientists actually wrote/said you would realize that what science says and what activists and journalists claim science says are quite different. That's why its almost impossible for a journalist to get a quote from a scientists on this topic anymore. Its also why there are almost no scientists who are members of "green" political entities (eg Sierra Club) anymore. Did you see a quote from a scientist in this article? When was the last time you saw one?

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#137

Post by nradov »

hx8 wrote: post #115
syntaxing wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In certain Asian countries, medical education is 100% covered but you must work at a public hospital for X years. I honestly think it’s very fair. If tax payers full funds your education, it should be mandatory to work in public services for X amount of years.

This is common for teachers in many US states too -- spend X years teaching where we need you the most and we cover your degree. In the US a teaching degree might be $50,000, and medical degree might be $500,000. I'm not sure I want my state government covering half a million in education costs for one person... I know that we need doctors but I'd want to see some ROI numbers to justify such a high expense.

The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Scholarship Program and Indian Health Service Scholarship Program will pay for medical school in exchange for agreeing to work in underserved areas for several years. Some states have similar programs. I'm not sure how you would even begin to calculate ROI for that.

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R44970

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#138

Post by loeg »

dymk wrote: post #117
hunterpayne wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's 7x the cost that I pay in the Pacific NW. Where are you?

I'm in the PNW and I pay 11c/kWh (well, I would, if I didn't have solar). Seattle is 13c, King County averages 16c. Where are you paying 5c/kWh? That's exceptionally cheap.

Seattle is nearer 14c (13.75) and likely to increase over the next decade (because of nonsense like[1]).

[1]: This alone will increase costs by something like 4c/kWh from these 70 year old dams: https://www.king5.com/article/news/investigations/skagit-riv...

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#139

Post by gravypod »

hx8 wrote: post #115
syntaxing wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In certain Asian countries, medical education is 100% covered but you must work at a public hospital for X years. I honestly think it’s very fair. If tax payers full funds your education, it should be mandatory to work in public services for X amount of years.

This is common for teachers in many US states too -- spend X years teaching where we need you the most and we cover your degree. In the US a teaching degree might be $50,000, and medical degree might be $500,000. I'm not sure I want my state government covering half a million in education costs for one person... I know that we need doctors but I'd want to see some ROI numbers to justify such a high expense.

There was an article posted on HN recently about the asymmetry in cost of providing an ambulance service vs the cost of the per-ride service. The cost of a medical degree, and the training on top of the degrees, may seem waaay too high but I am sure that when you need the service you want it to be there. I think if I break a leg, need an emergency surgery, etc I will be okay with $0.00001 of my taxes going into the pile needed for paying off those $500k loans.

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#140

Post by grantoz »

mrtksn wrote: post #77

Isn't this a similar issue of doctors raised by taxpayers money doing hair transplant and cosmetic surgeries instead of working in much less profitable hospitals with sick people or European scientists and engineers risen by public education working in American tech companies or super rich people from all over the world buying all the homes in London which is valuable not because of its resources but because of the p…

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