I grew up next to a hydroelectric dam on the Columbia River in Oregon where a large amount of the power went to smelting aluminum. That industry was a huge part

I grew up next to a hydroelectric dam on the Columbia River in Oregon where a large amount of the power went to smelting aluminum. That industry was a huge part of the industry in our small town that otherwise primarily produced cherries. I went on a tour there with my scout group and it made a serious impression on me, it was erie how you could literally feel the enormous amounts of current in the air. There was so much current that the free-air magnetic field in the plant was literally palpable, the engineer giving us the tour did a demonstration similar to this video[1] which blew my young mind. A portion of the land, and the substantial power-handling infrastructure (and proximity to the river for cooling) now powers a Google datacenter. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsuSo7aFGhk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsuSo7aFGhk