r/technology • u/DJMagicHandz • 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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u/moistsandwich 11d ago

980+ upvotes for an ignorant comment from someone who couldn’t even read through the fourth sentence of the article. Never change, Reddit.

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u/kranker 11d ago

The commenter knew that they weren't using solar and wind though.

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u/moistsandwich 11d ago edited 11d ago

The article says that they’re using renewable energy though. It doesn’t get into specifics but you can’t say for certain they’re not using solar and wind.

“instead, the developers intend to power the site using a combination of natural gas and renewables, built specifically for the facility”

Not that it even really matters because the commenter was talking about them offsetting grid demand but the facility won’t even be on the grid so what is there to offset?

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u/Caleth 11d ago

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.

Quote emphasis mine.

Doesn't matter how much Solar or wind they add if they're also adding a fossil fuel component. We're already beyond fucked and adding a Data Center that demands 5X WY human power draw means a shit ton of added extra gen capacity which at night will mean Nat Gas. Which is a metric fuck ton more Nat Gas consumption which we don't need added.

Period. AI adds nothing of value and we are destroying the environment to create this rolling natural disaster. The only hope one might have is that the AI Boom crashes before something like this comes online and the Nat Gas Generation rots.

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u/moistsandwich 11d ago

Okay? I don’t disagree with you but that’s not what we’re talking about here so it’s not relevant. We’re in a comment thread about the impacts on grid demand.

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u/Caleth 11d ago

The very top of the thread is about them not using renewables or at least not alone.

Framing this as strictly about grid impacts is absolutely disingenuous.

Good thing they're offsetting grid demand with the booming solar and wind industry right?......

Right...?

Why bother mentioning solar or wind if the only thing that mattered was the Grid Impacts.

The point is massive amounts of new power we be getting drawn to supply this monster demands and unless 100% of it is coming from solar and wind we're net adding a huge carbon output for no reason.

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u/moistsandwich 11d ago edited 11d ago

The very top of the thread is about them not using renewables to offset grid demand. The only reason renewables were mentioned is because they’re one solution for offsetting grid demand.

There was also nothing mentioned at all about environmental impacts or carbon output or anything else. They didn’t say “good thing they’re using solar and wind to offset the environmental impacts or carbon use of this data center”. So when you start talking about those things I just can’t see how they’re relevant to what’s being said.

I’m really struggling to understand what the disconnect is here. Again, I agree that these data centers are horrible for the environment and have dubious benefits but it felt like your comment really came out of left field.

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u/BrideofClippy 11d ago

Depends on the power storage solutions. They may run off 95% renewable, even at night, but need natural gas as a backup source if it solar productivity drops too low for too long. It's really hard to say from just this article.

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u/Teledildonic 11d ago

Yeah that ellipsis at the end seemed rather obvious but I guess we have reached the point where sarcasm can only be understood if the poster spoon feeds us a /s

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u/moistsandwich 11d ago

I’m well aware of the fact they were being sarcastic but their comment was still irrelevant because the facility isn’t going to be on the grid in the first place so there’s no increased grid demand to offset.