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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

#161

Post by unknownfuture »

cadamsdotcom wrote: post #135

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…

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

Commensurate with their costs, including externalities? That very much remains to be seen.

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

#162

Post by bawolff »

alephnerd wrote: post #34
breppp wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That and misappropriating a lot of the taxes of other countries in the process

It's not misappropriation. Other countries within the EU could be much more business incorporation and FDI friendly, and IDA Ireland tends to be one of the more competent trade promotion agencies within the EU. Why should Ireland undermine 13% of it's GDP [0]? Edit: can't reply > Telling American multinationals you will have them pay 0 tax isn't exactly a "tax policy" as such Ireland's corporate tax rate is 12.5% but…

> Why should Ireland undermine 13% of it's GDP

Undercutting other countries on tax policy tends to piss them off. So it comes down to whether the benefits of the policy outweigh the blowback.

The 13% of GDP figure can be a bit misleading as GDP from being a tax haven tends to help the average irish citizen a lot less than more traditional ecconomic activity.

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

#163

Post by ggm »

Do they pay for it, and the consequent infrastructure cost increases? If they pay full commercial rates or adjusted rates for behaviours which are net beneficial to the supply process, then isn't this just another form of revenue?

If they have successfully avoided what they consider "externalities" thats a different matter. Like, polluting.

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

#164

Post by thin_carapace »

hinkley wrote: post #89
mrtksn wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think its obvious from the context what kind of plastic surgery, the vanity one.

I think it's obvious from 'all nuance is lost' that it does not matter, at all. You're inviting collateral damage, as I already said.

the grandparent commentor provided examples to illustrate 1 idea. you took one of those examples and showed how it could be used to illustrate another idea. thats fair enough. in your second comment you continued drilling this point without expounding upon it and without referring to the original topic. hence it seems you aren't interested in the overall conversation, rather whatever point you are trying to make. im not trying to be pejorative here, it is legitimately my perspective that the only thing you added to the conversation was collateral damage itself, by annoying someone enough for them to get muted.

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

#165

Post by hunterpayne »

defrost wrote: post #145
hunterpayne wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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" politica…

> Did you see a quote from a scientist in this article? The article cited the latest figures from Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO). There's little need here for Niels Bohr or a bleeding edge virologist to lean in on annual summary stats on civil infrastructure usage.

Those are not scientists. They also compute GDP.

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

#166

Post by defrost »

hunterpayne wrote: post #165
defrost wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did you see a quote from a scientist in this article? The article cited the latest figures from Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO). There's little need here for Niels Bohr or a bleeding edge virologist to lean in on annual summary stats on civil infrastructure usage.

Those are not scientists. They also compute GDP.

Why do they need "a scientist" to compound statistics?

They certainly have BSc Mathematics types. What is the additional scientific discipline you think needs to weigh in here?

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

#167

Post by gretch »

hinkley wrote: post #105
paleotrope wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California is not a great place to build data centers. If you need to service CA, there are better options

Oh yeah, power distribution is kind of a circus there isn't it.

Also earthquakes

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

#168

Post by TaboZ »

twelve40 wrote: post #152
rogerrogerr wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There IS value being created, or people wouldn't use the tools. While I do think there is value being created, I think this form of argument is not as watertight as it appears at first glance. Humans are very capable of behaving irrationally. I think there is a lot of harmful, negative “work” being done by AI today. Creating fake videos for Facebook, running girlfriend bots, automated scams, etc. Even employees jus…

data center = girlfriend bots = meth lab is a pretty wild connection to make.

No it's not.

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

#169

Post by gib444 »

mrb wrote: post #62

Ah the old "country's worth of electricity" comparison... Keep in mind that Ireland's entire electricity needs could be covered by a one nuclear power plant (3.8 GW with 4 reactors). IOW, you could offload all Irish datacenters by connecting them to a single nuclear power reactor (~900 MW), a small building that has a footprint of under 50 x 50 meters for the reactor, and another of 100 x 50 meters for the generator.

You don't know about Sellafield, do you?

Nor the law banning nuclear for electricity generation.

Nor the attempt this year to reverse that law which got defeated.

Ireland appears to not want nuclear ;)

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

#170

Post by hunterpayne »

vkou wrote: post #153
hunterpayne wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of the anti-datacenter movement is funded by the CCP. That's why it is so lacking in facts. Most datacenters use closed loop cooling. That means it doesn't consume water for anything more than the toilets and water fountains. Yet this talking point pops up in almost every article on the topic. Part of the reason you are seeing closed door meetings now is because leaders know that the public is profo…

Most data centers do not use closed loop cooling. They all have a closed cooling loop, but almost all of them cool the exterior condensers with an open cooling loop. Which draws from the watermain, sprays water on the hot condensers, the water evaporates, cooling the condensers. This is done to reduce their electric bills, because condensers operate more efficiently when they are cold. The fully closed-loop data cent…

Do you honestly think that the very detailed understanding of cooling systems that you have has anything in common with the popular opinion that datacenters use lots of water?

Also, you are arguing jargon...and data centers use completely closed loop designs where it makes sense (very cheap power) and use what you describe where it makes sense (with more expensive power and cheaper water). Finally, nothing you said disproves that there is a significant propaganda effort to demonize datacenters by a foreign power.

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