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Sometimes I see chatter about using solar or nuclear or whatever power for data centers, thereby making them "clean," and it's frustrating that there isn't alwa
by 0_____0 1y ago
Sometimes I see chatter about using solar or nuclear or whatever power for data centers, thereby making them "clean," and it's frustrating that there isn't always the acknowledgement that the clean energy could displace other dirty generation.
Even with things like orphaned natural gas that gets flared otherwise - rescuing the energy is great but we could use it for many things, not just LLMs or bitcoin mining!
- AnthonyMouse 1y ago> the clean energy could displace other dirty generation. If you would have built 10GW of solar or nuclear to replace other generation and instead the data center operators provide funding to build 20GW so that 10GW can go to data centers, the alternative wasn't replacing any of the other dirty generation. And the economies of scale may give the non-carbon alternatives a better cost advantage so you can build even more.
- 0_____0 1y agoIf this scenario relies on DC operators to give away money, I doubt it could ever seriously represent the bulk of what the industry is doing.
- AnthonyMouse 1y agoWho is giving away money? They're paying to build power plants because it's cheaper than buying power from the grid.