alt Hacker NewsThe trendy desire to blame data centers for everything is nauseating. Data centers aren't poluting the air. Power plants are.
Since Texas has been leading the nation on renewables because it has a fairly free power market amd renewables are the cheapest power available, I'd expect this surge in demand to be eventually replaced by more renewables. In the meantime, extra capacity comes from old plants that can be spun up quickly.
Replies
Data centers often come with their very own natural gas turbines right outside to provide power the grid can't supply. This is what happened at xAI's data center in Memphis.
It's election season, and data centers are being thrown around ads continuously to scare the olds into voting.
It's one bridge away from selling them Old Glory robot insurance.
"Data centers are everywhere and they consume old people's medicine for fuel."
Natural gas is better than coal. Natural gas exhausts can be sequestered. But since we can't even break the coal habit let alone embrace renewables and clear the path for nuclear as needed, good luck! Stupid meatbags.
Love to know who this actually triggers and what's inaccurate about the above? Coal is super good and clean? Natural gas emissions can't be sequestered despite numerous examples of exactly that? How dare I even suggest nuclear? Or is it just downright America-hating unpatriotic and letting the evil drag queens win? Genuinely curious.
>Data centers aren't poluting the air. Power plants are.
Currently for Datacenter's to move forward in Texas they must have some local power production so you see some of the newer upcoming ones featuring 20+ portable gas turbines on site. Others feature mixed solar/portable gas turbine.