Mega data centers are coming to Minnesota. Their power needs are staggering.

[NickB79]

https://www.startribune.com/mega-data-centers-are-coming-to-minnesota-their-power-needs-are-staggering/601204129

Facebook’s parent company is building Minnesota’s first mega data center in Rosemount to house its fast-growing need for computing muscle.

Amazon and Microsoft bought land for large data centers near Xcel Energy’s soon-retiring coal plant in Becker. A Colorado company called Tract has advanced a project in Farmington and is eyeing colossal sites in Rosemount and Cannon Falls. Other companies want to build data centers in Chaska, Faribault, North Mankato and Hampton.

If built, this crop of data centers could demand as much electricity as every home in Minnesota.

State and local officials as well as electric utilities are grappling with how to manage this explosive growth while keeping the lights on and complying with laws for a transition to clean power.

I live 15 miles from the Rosemount location, 5 miles from the Farmington location, 5 miles from Hampton, 15 miles from Cannon Falls and 20 miles from Faribault. I'm going to be literally surrounded by data centers.

[CoopersDad]

1. I attended two Silicon Valley Conferences last year about this very topic.

It's no joke, the power and water demands of Tech Data Centers has the big users scrambling to find ways appear sustainable.

But they're not.

I attended two energy-related conferences this past year:


The Oracle Center was the venue for the Sustainable Growth Summit, where the challenge of meeting increasing energy and water demands while simultaneously defending these as "sustainable" was the day's topic.

https://www.svlg.org/silicon-valley-leadership-groups-first-annual-sustainable-growth-summit-driving-innovation-for-a-sustainable-future/


Then, last month I attended the PG&E Innovation Summit 2024, Presented by DISTRIBUTECH®, at the Signia by Hilton San Jose, where Patti Poppe, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, and leaders in the applied AI sector discussed how AI would be essential in meeting a spectrum of challenges in the energy and environment sectors, many of which are created by AI.

https://web.cvent.com/event/d0a7c83a-dfb3-46fe-9be5-617b1463173d/summary


Some takeaways:

San Jose plans to build a data center integrated with new housing development.
The power for data centers eventually becomes heat-- the heat can be captured and used for domestic water heating and space heating, thus displacing the need for gas or electricity for those purposes.
It's not a cure, but it moves in the right direction.

Some additional resources:
https://www.iea.org/commentaries/what-the-data-centre-and-ai-boom-could-mean-for-the-energy-sector
https://www.energy.gov/policy/articles/clean-energy-resources-meet-data-center-electricity-demand
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/global-data-center-electricity-use-to-double-by-2026-report/

[NickB79]

2. Water is a huge concern

I'm on a well, so groundwater depletion is a serious concern.

And digging a new, deeper well can cost $20,000 dollars.

[CoopersDad]

5. Water for cooling the data centers where all of the power is converted into heat.

At the Innovations conference the Mayor of San Jose and PG&E CEO Patty Poppe described a project to build affordable housing around a data center.
The otherwise wasted heat will be captured and used for domestic water heating and space heating.

Other data centers have been built where none of that waste heat can be captured, and that's just sinful.

[jmowreader]

3. They're building a lot of these around Moses Lake, WA

Moses Lake has a BIG advantage over somewhere like Minnesota: the power generation capacity of the Bonneville Power Administration, who makes most of the electricity around here, was designed largely to support aluminum smelters. Since they're not smelting aluminum in the Northwest any longer, we have a lot of unused capacity - perfect for power-hungry uses like data centers.

[roomtomove]

4. What is the purpose of these data centers?

I don't need them, who does? Are they for bitcoin mining or for gathering intel on each of us to sell us stuff? How are they getting permits at our expense?

[highplainsdem]

6. Mostly for AI, especially generative AI. Google's AI search, for instance, requires about 10x the computing

power of regular search. So more electricity, and more water. Just a few ChatGPT queries can waste the equivalent of a bottle of water.

GenAI is very bad for the environment. AI bros will sometimes admit that but tell people not to worry, because AI will save us by solving the climate crisis, and getting rid of all diseases, and even solving "all of physics" according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Just trust the AI bros, and give them more money - they want trillions for AI infrastructure - and get rid of every pesky regulation in their way.

[NickB79]

8. Your bottle of water comparison is exactly how a professor friend described it

She teaches computer science at a nearby college, and is appalled by the growth of AI right now.

[Irish_Dem]

7. Our AI overlords are sucking up all the resources from humans.

And humans don't seem to care or notice too much.

I guess AI is smarter than we are.