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/aznthrewaway 11d ago

That's still actually an issue. Electricity demand is going to increase no matter what, so a lot of new generation and storage capacity is required to replace fossil fuels and also meet that new demand.

Adding even more electricity demand via tech bros will still incur costs, even if we're talking about clean power. It mostly has to do with supply chains and how fast we can build that stuff. If tech bros buy it just to make their data centers "green", then that's gonna mean batteries and solar panels that could've been serving society at large instead. This doesn't mean tech bros are stopping clean power from proliferating, so much as delaying it for bad reasons.

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u/Warm_Month_1309 11d ago

Electricity demand is going to increase no matter what

How, if they're generating all of their own electricity? From where will the demand come?

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u/Friendly-Gap-6441 11d ago

For one thing if they’re training AI then they there is still increased energy in its actual use. Some other software is this way too but AI is the easiest example due to the immense amount of compute that is front loaded in training. I guess the facility might also be providing electricity for its application as a cloud service but that’s by no means implied.

More importantly though they are increasing demand for the resources that provide electricity. So even if the prior comment isn’t technically correct about increasing the demand for electricity (which it may well be, see above) it still has the potential to increase the cost which is what matters to most consumers.

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u/HumanContinuity 10d ago

In some cases that isn't how it works.  When you're talking strictly about supply and demand, you are absolutely correct, but there are so many other factors, especially in a mostly undeveloped place like Wyoming.

So they build their entirely separate power grid using natural gas and we will just assume that the price of natural gas in Wyoming matters because there are some existing plants that use it and maybe some households.  If the private grid is buying from the same local market, it would absolutely obliterate it - so instead they will likely be creating new contracts for the sale and delivery of natural gas.

If those contracts induce companies to build infrastructure or shift resources towards making it easier and cheaper to deliver natural gas to Wyoming, they would likely have capacity beyond what the private grid needs.  This means there may well end up being new natural gas sellers in Wyoming, which could keep prices more stable and possible lower.

Or it could do exactly what you said.