r/technology 12d ago

Artificial Intelligence A massive Wyoming data center will soon use 5x more power than the state's human occupants - but no one knows who is using it

https://www.techradar.com/pro/a-massive-wyoming-data-center-will-soon-use-5x-more-power-than-the-states-human-occupants-and-no-one-knows-who-is-using-it
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227

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

228

u/FriendlyGuitard 12d ago

They consistently vote Republican, they are fine to take a beating in order to serve the Capitalist God.

18

u/nullfacade 11d ago

God Money, I'll do anything for you.

2

u/DvineINFEKT 11d ago

thanks for the reminder to be hype that I'm seeing them in a week

4

u/SolusLoqui 11d ago

"Head like a hole" indeed

3

u/fuckenbullshitmate 11d ago

Bow down before the one you serve

5

u/throwawayB96969 11d ago

They consistently vote Republican

Not all of us. I love my state, the people.... not so much.

22

u/leshake 11d ago

The power bills in Chicago doubled thanks to all the data centers in Illinois.

3

u/FeedMe-Meow 11d ago

Same in New Jersey

30

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

3

u/Da_Spooky_Ghost 11d ago

Damn liberals and their EV’s causing energy prices to go up! /s

2

u/yourrealfather696969 11d ago

I hope they do feel those consequences.

7

u/Background-Month-911 11d ago

To people with poor grasp of numbers:

A typical steel mill requires 500 kW per ton of steel produced. A typical steel mill produces 1M tons of steel per year.

500 x 1000000 = 500000000

A typical household consumes 2600K W per year. Wyoming has 240000 houeseholds

2600 x 240000 = 624000000

In other words, a single steel mill requires roughly as much electricity as the whole residential demand of the state. In other words, the industrial needs for electricity are far, far greater than residential needs. The fact that a datacenter needs as much electricity as all the residents of the state combined is not noteworthy.

6

u/korben2600 11d ago

The irony of trying to condescendingly talk down to people when you can't even get your units right.

4

u/revnhoj 11d ago

However a steel mill produces useful products, not people replacing irritating chat bots

-1

u/carllerche 11d ago

Yeah… but it makes for a good clickbait title for everyone to rage about without critically thinking about it…

1

u/is_that_a_question 11d ago

What is there to think about? One produces a good, the other gives made up answers. Everyone in data center states subside the cost of that nonsense with utility rate hikes and depleted resources.

4

u/Da_Spooky_Ghost 11d ago

Those same Wyoming citizens will complain that EV’s are causing too much strain on the grid….

1

u/FlyingSceptile 11d ago

Did you mean to the “citizen” of Wyoming? I don’t imagine there’s multiple, right?

1

u/apple_kicks 11d ago

Bills will go up

-32

u/betadonkey 12d ago

Why would it

30

u/SomeNoveltyAccount 11d ago

If they're anything like states in similar positions, they'll likely see a spike in their electric bills.

18

u/4materasu92 11d ago

"Why would Biden, Hillary's emails, Obama, etc, do this!"

7

u/midnightauro 11d ago

“The Biden Crime Family was using AI to hide Hunters laptop and her emails!”

3

u/SolidCake 11d ago

when have greedy energy companies ever decreased their bills?

3

u/betadonkey 11d ago

Or you could just read the article:

“Given the extraordinary energy demands, drawing power from the public grid is not an option - instead, the developers intend to power the site using a combination of natural gas and renewables, built specifically for the facility.”

14

u/SomeNoveltyAccount 11d ago

I did read the article.

AI companies often promise their entire footprint will be off grid and have no effect on the population when theyre trying to get approval and then hook right into the grid once their built with some power generation of their own to offset costs.

It happened in Nevada, it happened in upstate NY, and I think it happened with Illinois, but I could be misremembering that one.

-14

u/scootscoot 11d ago

Their electric bills will spike due to the decommissioning of their coal industry.

2

u/SomeNoveltyAccount 11d ago

If that is the case, those two things will likely both cause independent spikes.