Submitted 3 weeks ago by Davriellelouna@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
“To the best of our knowledge, it is the largest data center — we think of it as a campus — in the world,” OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane told The Associated Press last week. “It generates, roughly and depending how you count, about a gigawatt of energy.”
Why is this guy saying a datacenter generates energy? It does literally the exact opposite. I guess you don’t need to actually know anything to get a leadership role at openai, as long as you can say lots of words.
It's exactly what they want. He is avoiding use of clear, concise sentences to mislead the layman. The data center is generating a gigawatt of energy, for their use. The Wisconsin power grid is their battery.
Jfc you almost gave me a heart attack and I had to go re-read, it's Wyoming, no data center here yet though Microsoft was proposing one in Racine. It's only a matter of time with all the water here.
Some of these facilities do generate a significant portion of their own electricity via various means. It’s not like that amount of energy is just sitting out there on the grid waiting to be used. Somebody has to generate it and if you’re already investing millions in rectifiers, batteries, and other data center power systems, why wouldn’t you consider taking it a step further?
Tell me it’s not gonna be generating power with “portable“ generators that narrowly avoid stricter regulation thanks to the guy who bought Twitter pushing them around the data center parking lot every few months.
Yeah that language is pure corporate BS - data centers CONSUME energy at massive scales (up to 1 gigawatt in this case, which is insane), they’re literally just giant heaters that occasionally produce AI outputs as a byproduct of all that wasted electricty.
I guess they could say they are generating 1GW of computing power
1 gigawatt is not that insane, and I doubt it’s what the datacenter consumes. A rack can easily get into double, even triple digits kW for GPU heavy setups. So let’s say 10 racks per Megawatt. I’m sure such a datacenter has more than 10.000 racks. Plus A/C, and all other “ancillary” uses. A normal datacenter can get close to 1 GW, this thing might be double digits, but I doubt they will publish exact numbers.
I read something about natural gas powered power plants; not sure if it’s this one specifically.
Because unfortunately this is not the only gigantic climate destroyer AI thingy planned/built.
AI Data centers noticeably fuck with the grid. As a result they are facing internal and external pressure to generate more of their own power. Microsoft is opening a nuclear power plant. I would not be shocked to learn through solar, wind, and coal they provide the majority of their own power
But this proposed data center is so big, it would have its own dedicated energy from gas generation and renewable sources, according to Collins and company officials.
The “depending on how you count” probably refers to the renewables.
Why is this guy saying a datacenter generates energy?
It’s less absurd than it sounds and requires understanding how modern data center facilities that are being deployed by big tech actually work and run at a facility-wide and systemic level. They do generate this energy, they just proceed to use it. Notice he says roughly a gigawatt of energy, which is nowhere near the gross need for the facility as per the article.
Most modern data centers built in the past few years, especially those that are “campuses” as described, have on-site power generation solutions. Sometimes this means classic oil/coal/gas generators on the property, sometimes it means more involved and nuanced situations. What Lehane is telling the AP here is that, of the energy consumed by the new data center as a whole, “roughly and depending how you count,” 1 gigawatt comes from such sources. The article clearly states the center is set to deploy at 1.8 gigawatts consumption scaling up to 10 gigawatts over the lifespan of the facility. Presumably these are on the same time scales and everything. Frankly, for an AP article this was written quite poorly and the exact meaning of most this information isn’t very clear. I don’t think that’s Lehane’s fault implicitly. Just seems like bad reporting.
People have this image in their heads of these big data centers opening up and just like, sucking up all the power from the local grid due to their demand and this is what causes things such as blackouts. This is mildly incorrect. The negative effects of these data centers’ power demands is less to do with them “overloading” public grids and more to do with the market economy of energy. You get blackouts because all the energy they can’t generate themselves on-site must be acquired somewhere else. They can walk up to the local power companies and buy energy just like any private citizen can. They often get discounted rates compared to the plebes, too. You end up with blackouts because the energy companies don’t give a shit who they sell their product to, they just care that it sells. When companies like Microsoft, Nvidia, or OpenAI roll up with significantly more capital and resources than anyone else in the local economy, they’re easily able to out-compete even the entirety of the local domestic power demand. That’s what causes blackouts.
No one wants to talk about this because it’s easier to just say braindead shit like “fuck datacenters/AI/big-tech/fuckingwhateveritis” so you can feel like you’re “on the right side” than it is to acknowledge the long line of people in both the public and private sectors who had to rubber-stamp personally fucking the average person for us to even get to this point. Does big tech suck absolutely, fat, stinking donkey balls? For fucking sure. Are they anything more than a symptom of a much more entrenched societal rot? Nope.
the only thing that makes sense is heat
My data center has 35MW of generators onsite. No modern DC is designed nor built without backup generators to allow continuous operation during any utility power outages.
Why is this guy saying a datacenter generates energy? It does literally the exact opposite.
Is that true, though?
To be fair, only 6 people live in Wyoming
You’re absolutely correct and I don’t mean to nitpick - just taking the opportunity to add some hard facts:
587,618
That is very little considering it’s about the site of any other mid-Western state.
From the article, it sounds like it will eventually use 20x the energy of all the households in Wyoming. That’s pretty fucking nuts.
Remember how we were told to switch to led lights and efficient appliances to conserve power? Guess it was just to save it for data centers.
Yes, and my bill become 1/5 of what it was, so maybe is was a not so stupid thing to do.
its was so that coal/gas/oil dont need to reduce thier own footprint, they moved onto “you should reduce yours” and were funding fake eco-activism and “reduce your footprint companies” so we dont do it.
Every time you thank ChatGPT, a house goes dark in Wyoming
*a barn goes dark
Lmao have fun with that power grid impact, Wyoming…
Its going to ruin most states around it too, Wyoming is a massive net electricity exporter, due to cheap coal and wind resources. A majority of what they produce is transmitted to neighboring states, as far as Oregon and Washington.
But this proposed data center is so big, it would have its own dedicated energy from gas generation and renewable sources
Very unfortunate, as this could have been an opportunity to advance the green power agenda. Solar, wind, and nuclear are all more efficient than fossil fuels – so why build new fossil fuel plants?
if governments won't protect us then the time for corporate sabotage is on us. make it incredibly expensive to keep businesses and data centers open.
But this proposed data center is so big, it would have its own dedicated energy from gas generation and renewable sources
Very unfortunate, as this could have been an opportunity to advance the green power agenda. Solar, wind, and nuclear are all more efficient than fossil fuels – so why build new fossil fuel plants?
Because solar and wind plants, while they can be cheap and relatively fast to build, are not as reliable as a datacenter need and it is not predictable, so at most they can supplement some other generation method, in this scenario. Then ok, you probably need less fossil fuel (but gas is not necessary fossil these days).
And a nuclear plant is probably way longer to build than the datacenter itself, if you ever get the green light to build it.
Batteries exist.
keepin my fingers crossed for nuclear. 🤞
So the price for power is going to double?
no, because it will have a dedicated power station.
I’m starting to think this is how they ease us into accepting the argument they need to grind us up for biofuel.
“Sorry kids, it turns out deregulation of nuclear safety and all these small modular nuclear reactors we built still isn’t enough to power the data centers.”
“Good news, we have this new idea: You know how there’s just way too many of you bc we’ve been banning birth control methods and spreading misinformation about declining birth rates? And there’s also not enough food bc of tariffs and a lack of available labor to harvest all those crops we let rot?”
To be fair, in exchange we will still get to enjoy terrible AI generated art and music.
misinformation about declining birth rates
What misinformation? Every expert on the subject is agreeing that we’re at or below replacement rate.
I mean my opinion is if your plan is to take away everybody’s healthcare, collapse the economy, close public schools, and decrease quality of life in general, plus do all these other crazy things that put the mother’s life at risk, why would it be a good idea to encourage as many new births as possible?
Also, I know n=1 but I really wanted to have another kid last year, but put it off specifically bc of the crazy laws Republicans started passing that put maternal health at risk. Honestly, I’m relieved I didn’t bc the economy has gotten so bad since then. Now when I read stories about brain dead women being forced to be kept alive to carry a fetus and give birth it makes me wonder if I’ll ever want to risk having another baby.
I think it’s dishonest to pretend that current birthrates in the U.S. at least aren’t reflecting many women’s fears about giving birth.
Reminds me of that town that Musk basically bought a while back, promising a spaceport or something, and all they really got out of it is a lot of noise and pollution.
Fake news! Everyone knows Wyoming was made up by the deep state and doesn’t actually exist.
Wyoming is corrupt as fuck. Coal is in charge there
Literally the plot of Eddington lol, this country gets worse each year
I was looking for someone to say this. Then realized not many people here watch recent movies.
More like most people don’t watch anything other then studio tentpole popcorn muncher movies
do they really have nothing better to do?
Being rich is an obsession. It doesn’t just end once you’re rich.
Will AI finally be the push we needed to seriously invest in Nuclear 100%? I’d rather that than solar panel companies create a bunch of garbage to say that they’re “saving le planet”
I have seen impulsive gaslighting and malicious reframing spill out of every one of these ai. Straight up doing verbal abuse.
Lots of wind farms out there
Can imagine, but hey, someone’s gotta pay for all those Sora videos I’m generating and trashing because the subject had too many extremities.
Me with suno songs lmao
The state exports almost three-fifths of the electricity it produces, according to the EIA.
this means to use internal “surplus” electricity in the state, 750mw data center would be supported. The initial build is 1.8gw.
Yo ming
the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
And suddenly these same assholes will tell you to turn your ac off because the power grid can’t meet demand for some “mysterious” reason.
pdxfed@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Splurge for me, conserve for thee.
Same with water in CA. Industry uses >80% of water in the state and the focus is on 30 second showers and bullying citizens because their representatives have been captured along with their press in the profit machine.
bear@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Residential homes use about 12% of the consumed fresh water in the United States.
Their whole industries that scrape a bit of profit off of a huge amount of America’s water. Like exporting alfalfa grown in a desert.
steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Reminds me of the story of Texas paying bitcoin farms millions of dollars not to use energy during heat waves cbsnews.com/…/bitcoin-mining-cryptocurrency-riot-…
Dozzi92@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
But it’s not the AI farm’s fault, because they get paid to turn off during times the grid is under a lot of stress. So they make money 100% of the time, don’t worry!
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Genuinely curious - has Texas been getting fewer residential outages since they expanded capacity for crypto mining? I’d imagine the same economics apply here.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
or use less water because the AI center needs it to cool off.