[explodes]

This is pretty much exactly my gripes, too. Data centers are necessary, but why are we doing this all the wrong way?

The new Utah data center is building new gas pipelines to generate 9GW instead of requiring ANY percentage of green energy, while also giving massive tax breaks that the families living nearby and statewide will have to cover.

For actionable information on this specific project, see:

https://www.breatheutah.org/news/the-stratos-project-questio...

[prollings]

I keep seeing people all over the internet adding the caveat that the data centres are necessary in comments following stories about rollout (and often the stories themselves). But never why that's the case. So the question is why are more data centres necessary at the proposed rollout rates? What actually drives this demand?

[kotaKat]

Don't worry, upstate New York's got your back.

We see your gas pipelines and raise you 100 to 316 diesel generators in a generator farm, with "only 20 running at a time". Shitty Bitcoin mining company that didn't give us any jobs suddenly pivoting to AI.

https://northcountrynow.com/stories/massena-town-board-takin...

[jchaselubitz]

Hot take: this is actual a symptom of power demand being too low, not too high. Bitcoin mining didn't draw enough energy to drive a real structural transition, so minors made up the gap with diesel. If NY had Virgina or Texas levels of datacenters, they could provide enough spend and power offtake to justify investments in nuclear.

[bryanlarsen]

Can you deploy a nuclear plant in 6 months, which is the time scale these facilities are looking for? You can do that with solar or diesel or natgas.