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3.5MW is a start but a fraction of 1 datacenter's load. I read that California's Long Valley has more than adequate geothermal resources to power the entire sta

3.5MW is a start but a fraction of 1 datacenter's load. I read that California's Long Valley has more than adequate geothermal resources to power the entire state, so I wonder if locating datacenters in Nevada or eastern California will become popular. There are already generating facilities there, but only a few hundred megawatts in total.

krasin 3y ago
That's a good idea, assuming that these datacenters would use a close-loop water cooling, as opposed to evaporation techniques, which waste enormous amount of water. See the previous discussion about datacenters in dry areas: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37732550 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37732550
- specialist 3y ago
  1/2 of the energy we consume ends up as heat. 1/2 of that is for industrial use. In our glorious renewable energy future, heat from data centers will be harnessed to recharge thermal batteries, run district heat (homes, buildings, pools), supply industrial heat, etc.
  - jeffbee 3y ago
    > 1/2 of the energy we consume ends up as heat 100% of the energy used by a datacenter becomes heat.
    - specialist 3y ago
      Right. Poor phrasing, sorry. I'm trying to say that waste heat could be used downstream, eg for heating homes or generating steam. Since heat is the end use of 1/2 of energy, this kind of conservation is low hanging fruit. IIRC, Google, Microsoft, others have already committed to pilot projects for capturing heat from their data centers. Transforming an expense into a revenue source. Woot.
Cthulhu_ 3y ago
That'll be a chicken / egg problem tbh, but I've seen windmill park projects get co-funded by local governments and capacity bought up by the likes of Microsoft for their datacenters ashore. That is: Local governments should set up infrastructure for datacenters and other energy intensive industry, developers should make plans to build geothermal plants, and big tech companies should help fund the construction of these plants. That said, the big tech companies have billions just sitting around, they can create their own energy companies and power plants.
- jeffbee 3y ago
  I think the geothermal people would have built more by now if they weren't blocked by CEQA/NEPA etc. It took them decades to build generators near Mammoth Lakes, just to grind through all the lawsuits.
- robertlagrant 3y ago
  > the big tech companies have billions just sitting around They do?
  - czinck 3y ago
    Microsoft has $80 B in cash and cash equivalents, Alphabet has $30 B in cash and cash equivalents, Apple has $30 B. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT/balance-sheet/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT/balance-sheet/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOGL/balance-sheet/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOGL/balance-sheet/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/balance-sheet/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/balance-sheet/ Numbers pulled from quarterly (not annual) breakdown.
GenerWork 3y ago
>I wonder if locating datacenters in Nevada or Eastern California will become popular. I believe that Fervo (the company Google partnered with) has open roles in Nevada, so it may be something that they're considering. Nevada also has the benefit of having cheap land once you move outside of places like Reno and Vegas because the majority of the state is arid/desert.

krasin 3y ago

That's a good idea, assuming that these datacenters would use a close-loop water cooling, as opposed to evaporation techniques, which waste enormous amount of water. See the previous discussion about datacenters in dry areas: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37732550 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37732550

specialist 3y ago
1/2 of the energy we consume ends up as heat. 1/2 of that is for industrial use. In our glorious renewable energy future, heat from data centers will be harnessed to recharge thermal batteries, run district heat (homes, buildings, pools), supply industrial heat, etc.
- jeffbee 3y ago
  > 1/2 of the energy we consume ends up as heat 100% of the energy used by a datacenter becomes heat.
  - specialist 3y ago
    Right. Poor phrasing, sorry. I'm trying to say that waste heat could be used downstream, eg for heating homes or generating steam. Since heat is the end use of 1/2 of energy, this kind of conservation is low hanging fruit. IIRC, Google, Microsoft, others have already committed to pilot projects for capturing heat from their data centers. Transforming an expense into a revenue source. Woot.

Cthulhu_ 3y ago

That'll be a chicken / egg problem tbh, but I've seen windmill park projects get co-funded by local governments and capacity bought up by the likes of Microsoft for their datacenters ashore. That is: Local governments should set up infrastructure for datacenters and other energy intensive industry, developers should make plans to build geothermal plants, and big tech companies should help fund the construction of these plants. That said, the big tech companies have billions just sitting around, they can create their own energy companies and power plants.

jeffbee 3y ago
I think the geothermal people would have built more by now if they weren't blocked by CEQA/NEPA etc. It took them decades to build generators near Mammoth Lakes, just to grind through all the lawsuits.
robertlagrant 3y ago
> the big tech companies have billions just sitting around They do?
- czinck 3y ago
  Microsoft has $80 B in cash and cash equivalents, Alphabet has $30 B in cash and cash equivalents, Apple has $30 B. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT/balance-sheet/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT/balance-sheet/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOGL/balance-sheet/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOGL/balance-sheet/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/balance-sheet/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/balance-sheet/ Numbers pulled from quarterly (not annual) breakdown.

GenerWork 3y ago

>I wonder if locating datacenters in Nevada or Eastern California will become popular. I believe that Fervo (the company Google partnered with) has open roles in Nevada, so it may be something that they're considering. Nevada also has the benefit of having cheap land once you move outside of places like Reno and Vegas because the majority of the state is arid/desert.