Comment on xAI Data Center Emits Plumes of Pollution, New Video Shows

• brachypelmasmithi@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Direct quote from the article:

  Having difficulty securing enough grid power to fuel the energy-hungry data center, xAI brought in 35 portable gas turbines, and assembled them without environmental permits or pollution controls.

  Looks like it’s not just cooling that they’re doing there. Methane in this case seems to either be a byproduct of power generation or unused fuel somehow leaking from the system. I have no clue how gas turbines work, so I’m talking out of my ass here. In any case this seems to be the source of the methane emissions.

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  • dan1101@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    It’s amazing to me that cloud computing is so profitable that they can run inefficient gas generators to power it.

    People don’t think about the internet being fossil fuel powered.

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  • obinice@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Methane is what the majority of natural gas is made up of, and if your generator isn’t made to be very efficient (like a real power station is), you’ll lose some of your fuel unburnt into the atmosphere.

    Kinda like unburnt wood smoke vapour, which could have been burned in a higher quality wood burner, but just goes up the chimney in an open fire.

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• CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  They’re running generators to power the data centre.

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