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I think its interesting in the Northwest, Huge Dams were built on the Columbia River to power Hanford (and the Manhattan Project) and the large glut of power af

I think its interesting in the Northwest, Huge Dams were built on the Columbia River to power Hanford (and the Manhattan Project) and the large glut of power after it was scaled back made it cheap to move Aluminum Smelters there. (and to Send 3GW of Super High Voltage DC power to LA from near Portland) Then, in the 90's, when power got more expensive (and more environmental rules) they moved them all overseas. That left a huge glut of Power in the area. So now, Facebook, Microsoft, AWS, Google All built their datacenters there.

ogre_codes 6y ago
> So now, Facebook, Microsoft, AWS, Google All built their datacenters there. Along with piles of bitcoin miners at least for a while.
s0rce 6y ago
Was Hanford there for power or for cooling water (and general remoteness so people didn't die in an accident)? Can't remember but I worked at PNNL for a few years. Still lots of aluminum smelting with hydropower in Canada.