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County with 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'

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Re: County with 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'

#151

Post by 8note »

philipallstar wrote: post #85
Tangurena2 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My state almost got a bill passed that would have made data centers pay for the new generating capacity. The House passed it, but the Senate strangled it. Thanks lobbyists! https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/26rs/hb593.html

The lobbyists are just doing their jobs well. It's the Senate that isn't. Blame the people who you pay taxes to purely to be impartial.

lobbyists alao disbenefit from bad policy, and their clients will lose out worse when the population is much more pissed off.

these are still physical assets that can be destroyed in a riot

Re: County with 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'

#152

Post by platevoltage »

genewitch wrote: post #69
slg wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most consumers don't have any AI subscriptions. Lots of people's primary experience of AI is it being forced on them through integration into existing products and services, more "greed and hubris".

i, an avid AI user, have never paid a subscription, as a point of data!

The day I'm force to pay for it, I'll stop using it.

Re: County with 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'

#153

Post by 8note »

jonas21 wrote: post #29

This is in Virgina, which passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act in 2020. This mandated that Dominion (the power company) transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045. Personally, I think this is a good thing in the long run, but in the short run, it means that Dominion has had to invest a lot in building out renewable projects that haven't come online yet. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab recently did an analysis on ele…

a different framing of this same information is that Dominion made dumb investment choices in the 2000s and 2010s, locking into electricity that has a fuel cost.

Re: County with 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'

#154

Post by baggy_trough »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #41
jonas21 wrote: post #29

This is in Virgina, which passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act in 2020. This mandated that Dominion (the power company) transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045. Personally, I think this is a good thing in the long run, but in the short run, it means that Dominion has had to invest a lot in building out renewable projects that haven't come online yet. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab recently did an analysis on ele…

So don't allow data centers to connect until enough clean energy has been brought online to meet their needs without impacting cost or availability for retail ratepayers. It's easy really. Say no. It's so strange to me that the argument previously was "we don't have enough energy generation for EVs and heat pumps to electrify and decarbon" but data centers are thought of as must run load that everyone has to suffer i…

Is there any reason to single out data centers, other than that they are the degrowther bugaboo of the year? Such a rule should apply to any industrial use such as a new factory, if it is to exist at all, which it shouldn't.

Re: County with 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'

#155

Post by dmix »

platevoltage wrote: post #147
Legend2440 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not surprised. 404 Media are anti-big tech and anti-AI activists. They are not shy about their agenda and do not claim to be unbiased.

I love tech, and I swear you Ai evangelists are making me anti-tech.

This is a popular social media take that is being pushed very hard by clickbait and doomposters, so it's not exactly going against the tide.

Social media is always trying to make things sound way worse than they are and journalists are always in a rush to latch onto those trending keywords, and artificially spin headlines vaguely connected to the topic. So if you only skim headlines it's easy to think something is a bigger problem than it is.

Re: County with 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'

#156

Post by omnimus »

Grombobulous wrote: post #142
jonas21 wrote: post #29

This is in Virgina, which passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act in 2020. This mandated that Dominion (the power company) transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045. Personally, I think this is a good thing in the long run, but in the short run, it means that Dominion has had to invest a lot in building out renewable projects that haven't come online yet. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab recently did an analysis on ele…

I appreciate that you linked a paper to support your opinion on this matter, though I read the summary PDF a whole lot differently than you did. I’m not sure I’d blame renewables anywhere near as much as you did. For one thing, energy demand hasn’t been increasing at the consumer level per capita. So you either have a growing population or growing commercial usage (like with data centers) or both driving energy deman…

If you switch to renewables too quickly you will damage the investments in fossil energy sources that could be making big profits for decades to come.

Re: County with 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'

#157

Post by amluto »

omnimus wrote: post #156
Grombobulous wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate that you linked a paper to support your opinion on this matter, though I read the summary PDF a whole lot differently than you did. I’m not sure I’d blame renewables anywhere near as much as you did. For one thing, energy demand hasn’t been increasing at the consumer level per capita. So you either have a growing population or growing commercial usage (like with data centers) or both driving energy deman…

If you switch to renewables too quickly you will damage the investments in fossil energy sources that could be making big profits for decades to come.

If a jurisdiction switches to renewables too quickly, it damages the electorate’s tolerance for green policies.

Re: County with 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'

#158

Post by dyauspitr »

jonas21 wrote: post #29

This is in Virgina, which passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act in 2020. This mandated that Dominion (the power company) transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045. Personally, I think this is a good thing in the long run, but in the short run, it means that Dominion has had to invest a lot in building out renewable projects that haven't come online yet. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab recently did an analysis on ele…

This is the way. Build more data centers and mandate they are powered by solar+batteries/nuclear.

Re: County with 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'

#159

Post by [deleted] »

Grombobulous wrote: post #142
jonas21 wrote: post #29

This is in Virgina, which passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act in 2020. This mandated that Dominion (the power company) transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045. Personally, I think this is a good thing in the long run, but in the short run, it means that Dominion has had to invest a lot in building out renewable projects that haven't come online yet. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab recently did an analysis on ele…

I appreciate that you linked a paper to support your opinion on this matter, though I read the summary PDF a whole lot differently than you did. I’m not sure I’d blame renewables anywhere near as much as you did. For one thing, energy demand hasn’t been increasing at the consumer level per capita. So you either have a growing population or growing commercial usage (like with data centers) or both driving energy deman…

[deleted]

Re: County with 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'

#160

Post by dmix »

Havoc wrote: post #146

It's kinda crazy that data centers aren't on some sort of ringfenced scheme. This whole just throw it on the grid and residential consumers pick up the increased infra costs is insane

> and residential consumers pick up the increased infra costs is insane

These companies are investing heavily in new energy development?

https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/30/data-centers-love-solar-he...

> Meta kicked off the year with a 200-megawatt solar deal with multinational electric utility Engie. The purchase went toward a solar farm near one of the company’s existing data centers in Texas. At the time of the deal, Meta already had over 12 gigawatts of generating capacity in its renewable portfolio.

> Stargate AI partnership between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank Group was reported by Bloomberg to be powered, at least in part, by solar. SB Energy, which is part of SoftBank’s portfolio, is expected to develop solar installations backed by grid-scale batteries.

> Meta closed out the month with another massive solar deal, this one with Spanish renewable developer Zelestra. The contract was for 595 megawatts of capacity.

> Meta continued its streak in February, investing in a 505-megawatt solar project with Cypress Creek Renewables, which is developing the massive installation in Coleman County, Texas — about 150 miles northwest of Austin.

> Microsoft entered the fray in February, too. The company has long been a buyer of renewable energy to power its operations, and added another 389 megawatts of solar in a deal with EDP Renewables North America.

> Amazon also made a big purchase, backing a hybrid project on the Iberian Peninsula that includes wind, solar, and pumped-hydroelectric storage. The deal included 476 megawatts total, of which 212 megawatts are solar.

> Outside of the U.S., data center operators have also been investing in solar. In India, CtrlS built its own 125-megawatt facility in two phases, the first half of which was finished in June 2024 with the second completed in early February. In South America, Telecom Argentina agreed to buy electricity from a 130-megawatt solar farm developed by MSU Green Energy.

> Microsoft added another three solar developments in March, again focusing on the Midwest. The projects span Illinois, Michigan, and Missouri, and they’re being developed by AES. Together, they will provide Microsoft with 475 megawatts of capacity, adding to its considerable 34-gigawatt portfolio.

> Cisco got in the game with a 100-megawatt deal with X-Elio, a solar developer owned by Brookfield, an asset manager that has bet big on renewables. The power purchase agreements see Cisco buying capacity from two different Texas solar projects.

> Meta added another 200 megawatts of solar to its portfolio in March in a deal with RWE. The solar farm will be built just southeast of Austin.

> In Italy, data center operator Data4 signed a 10-year deal with utility Edison Energia to buy power from a 148-megawatt solar farm northwest of Rome.

That was all in 2025^

There's also been big investment in nuclear and natural gas

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c748gn94k95o

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