Photo above – HBO's WestWorld screen shot. Delores asks: "Oh, Teddy . . .why can't we just leave now, before they build the worlds largest data center over there?" Utah was one of the sites used for on-location filming of the show's outdoor scenes.
Say goodbye to the State of Utah. A new hyperscale data center will emit 16 gigawatts of energy (waste heat, generating emissions) daily. For comparison, the Hiroshima bomb was under 1 gigawatt, but highly concentrated at the detonation site (600 feet above sea level) for just a few seconds. (see link below). Over the course of a full day 23 bombs worth of gigawatts will leak into Utah’s Box Elder valley, which is already a stifling heat trap.
Utah’s average temperature is already 94 degrees in July. Would it be better to shut the new data center down in the summer, and hope that in February (avg temp 46) the effect will be less destructive?
There are 15 winter ski resorts within an hour's drive of Salt Lake City. These are udoubtedly at higher elevations, where temps get below 46 degrees. The operators of these ski resorts might object to having a massive snow melt. Or if all blizzards simply arrive as rainstorms. One of these ski resort owners may have paid for the “23 nukes” calculation by Dr. Robert Davies at Utah State University. Or Dr. Davies may just be a savant who is good with numbers.
The link below, like earlier ones on the Utah data center, doesn’t reveal which corporation the worlds largest data center is being built for. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft come to mind, but we shouldn’t accuse unless someone raises their hand. Since all this is happening in Utah, It certainly won’t turn out to be some European tech company.
If this turns out to be Amazon, people should take exception to their online product summaries, which usually say "this item has 17 sustainability features".
We may have reached the point where there no acceptable places for data centers, if they’re going to have a Hiroshima like impact. Not unless those centers are completely solar or wind turbine powered. The latest craze for building data centers in chilly places like Norway, Finland, and Canada might simply mean we are dumping heat directly into regions which are most vulnerable to global warming. Don’t get me started on what floating or underwater data centers might do to ocean temps and currents.
If AI is anything close to as smart as its makers claim, let’s ask Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini where we can safely build data centers without destroying the planet. If they’re honest, they’ll probably say in orbit. If Claude and ChatGPT are “hallucinating” or lying, they will simply reassure us that it probably doesn't make any difference.
I’m just sayin’ . . .
New data center equivalent to setting off 23 nuclear bombs per day, professor finds
New data center emits heat equivalent to 23 nuclear bombs – every day. How much will the electricity cost for air conditioning?
byu/baltimore-aureole ineconomy
Posted by baltimore-aureole
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This is why there have been proposals to build data centers in the Nordic countries. Probably some were built. There are additional problems if one must build on land that has permafrost.
Duluth, MN has been discussed as a climate change haven. Maybe people will be lining up to live in International Falls, MN, which has reported some of the record low temperatures reported in the continental Unted States.