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Old, Polluting Jet Engines Are Being Scavenged to Power Data Centers (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 6 days ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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They’re rapidly being converted into generators to meet A.I.’s insatiable demand for electricity. Environmentalists call it a step backward.

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[–] 22 points 6 days ago (6 children)

Wow this can't be efficient. Jet engines are primarily designed to produce thrust. But looks like Musk got special permission from the state to pollute more, so all's good!

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  • [–] 17 points 6 days ago (2 children)

    It is. Jet engines are very efficient. But they also have to run high to reach that efficiency. But if you're running at high power for most of the time, like a jet aircraft or datacenter generator, then it makes sense. It doesn't matter whether your turbine shaft is connected to a fan or an electric generator rotor.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    That's true, it's not as bad as I was originally thinking. However, there's probably a reason traditional power plants never use jet engines for power production. According to this article, "But repurposed aircraft turbines tend to be less efficient and more polluting than engines designed for conventional gas-burning plants."

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  • [–] 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

    However, there's probably a reason traditional power plants never use jet engines for power production.

    They don't use used jet engines, no. But a gas turbine for a gas power plant shares many engineering principles with jet engines, and often many shared parts.

    And generally, for stationary plants, the heat of the exhaust can be used to boil steam and get another cycle's worth of work out of the heat, for even greater efficiency.

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  • [–] 8 points 5 days ago

    This isn't something new. Jet engines have been converted to power use for decades because once they are beyond the aircraft service life they are still useful for generating power

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