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Data centers are creating ‘heat islands’ and warming the land around them by up to 16 degrees | CNN (www.cnn.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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The vast data centers that power artificial intelligence are so energy hungry that they’re heating up their surroundings, according to new research. It’s an alarming finding given the number of data centers is predicted to explode over the next few years.

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[–] 11 points 7 months ago (7 children)

Isn't the largest data center currently something like 100MW? So "only" 0.1GW...65.000 space heaters is still insane though.

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  • [–] 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

    we were asked 400MW for a new data center, we told them 100MW is the max we could provide for now, and increase later, we have a new natural gas plant soon to enter operation to replace two retiring coal plants, but looks like we're postponing decommission targets to keep demand

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago

    I've had a pretty longstanding belief that a lot of the AI push is to inflate energy demand, as we increasingly add more renewables. In order to keep dirty energy "creating revenue" we need an energy sink to offset any added energy. I think this was crypto, and then NFTs. Those both faded away as soon as the AI stuff started being pushed. I don't believe this is totally a coincidence.

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