151–160 of 176 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't understand why. AI training can be run during the sunny days. Could be a good PR opportunity for Musk, I'm surprised he doesn't take it. Especially if he buys from his own company.
The problem is that the grid can’t get built out fast enough. You’ll probably see most AI data centers switch to grid power in the coming years using mostly wind and solar because it’s simply cheaper as well
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Solar is big and generally has to be built far from where the data centres are. these data centers dont care that much about network throughput - you can sneakernet the training set into place and inference on the text isnt that taxing on the network there's a reason the ai datacenters are being built wherever the power is cheapest and theres the lowest regulations. there's no real physical location requirement, so…
Solar works as well as it does only because we’ve spread it out and connected it to a grid. When it is overcast in one spot it is sunny elsewhere. That “elsewhere” has to be far enough away to get different weather. This means a grid capable of transferring 100% of the needed power. So even if you plopped a new DC in the middle of a field of panels you’d still need a ~1 GA grid connection… or a battery array many tim…
Alternatives exist but they aren't free... https://www.aga.org/decarbonizing-through-carbon-capture/ https://www.energyindepth.org/study-finds-carbon-capture-and... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S277265682... TIL mentioning a viable technology that would reduce emissions here but delay a forced transition to renewables is an instant downvote.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Solar works as well as it does only because we’ve spread it out and connected it to a grid. When it is overcast in one spot it is sunny elsewhere. That “elsewhere” has to be far enough away to get different weather. This means a grid capable of transferring 100% of the needed power. So even if you plopped a new DC in the middle of a field of panels you’d still need a ~1 GA grid connection… or a battery array many tim…
All those companies are sitting on literally hundreds of billions of dollars in cash. If they need this so badly, let them build the connection and other infrastructure.
They want to build the data centres right now, but the power companies and other energy suppliers are booked solid for 5+ years out.
Money or not, you can't just click your fingers and instantly get regulatory approval, or spin up a facility to build parts that only a handful of places have ever figured out how to mass-manufacture.
Gas turbine blades are especially difficult, but batteries and panels are not far behind. There are a surprisingly small number of shops capable of making power switching gear and transformers too.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hospitals can also just run on the sunny days. Renewable energy only makes sense in a society that is agrarian. The second you have to make anything industrial you need baseload. That baseload can either be coal or nuclear.
In modern times you combine solar energy with wind power and batteries and you already have 90% of the load covered. Then combine that with cheap, easily adjustable gas power plants to complete the picture for cloudy, windless winter days. There's really no need for coal or nuclear power plants anymore.
A more economical way would be to build nuclear power plants that power electrolyzers most of the time and provide power to the grid when necessary.
In the US, gas power plants make more sense due to ridiculously cheap gas, but even then the capacity factor of those power plants is much higher than 10%.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Remember when they said they couldnzt electrify the grid for ev's so they opted to just not do anything with ev's. Now datacenters are getting rushed in so fast and breaking the grids so hard they can illegally running generators
EVs aren't popular in the US due to the Republicans being beholden to oil and gas interests and the Democrats to unions. The grid was just an excuse.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
All those companies are sitting on literally hundreds of billions of dollars in cash. If they need this so badly, let them build the connection and other infrastructure.
Cash doesn't buy time machines. They want to build the data centres right now , but the power companies and other energy suppliers are booked solid for 5+ years out. Money or not, you can't just click your fingers and instantly get regulatory approval, or spin up a facility to build parts that only a handful of places have ever figured out how to mass-manufacture. Gas turbine blades are especially difficult, but batt…
And I want them to behave in a decent way, but universe does not ensure we get what we want.
They should be forced to build a grid in a way that does not speeds up global warming. What they want should be irrelevant.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://ourworldindata.org/profile/energy/china#what-sources... That's a funny statistic to focus on when the actual use of coal for electricity has increased by 50% over the same period. It's almost like they are using it to cover baseload or something.
You realize that link shows the exact opposite of what you're saying it shows, right? It shows that the percentage share of electricity generated from coal in China peaked at ~80% in 2007 and was at ~54% last year.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
EVs aren't popular in the US due to the Republicans being beholden to oil and gas interests and the Democrats to unions. The grid was just an excuse.
Both sides! We need to make up democrats against EV, because conservatives are!
Regarding EVs, the US started to fall behind in 2019, and the gap has only continued to widen, regardless of administration:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electric-car-sales-share?...
Electric buses should be a no-brainer, yet New York comes last among US states in a recent market survey:
https://theicct.org/publication/zero-emission-bus-and-truck-...