Data centers news and discussion

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

Also needs to build a massive solar field to meet the energy demand.

[caltrek]

The World’s Largest Data Center Was Supposed to Run on 100% Natural Gas. Utah’s Republican Governor Says ‘Never.’
By Leia Larsen
May 28, 2026

Introduction:

(Grist) A sprawling, 40,000-acre data center planned for northern Utah has stirred up controversy across the state over the past month, partly because of the pollution it’s expected to contribute to a region that already struggles with smog.

Officials with the quasi-governmental Military Installation Development Authority, or MIDA, which approved the project and created tax incentives to spur its development, have become de facto cheerleaders for the data center campus, called the Stratos Project. They say Kevin O’Leary, the Canadian TV personality and the main backer of Stratos, specifically selected a remote valley north of the Great Salt Lake because a gas pipeline runs through it.

The plant that will generate electricity for the data complex would be powered “100 percent off the Ruby Pipeline,” a MIDA official said in April.
But after weeks of protests, reams of comments against the project, and disgruntled Utahns digging into state leaders’ finances and family businesses, the state’s Republican governor has now asserted the project will “never” be solely powered by natural gas.

“That’s never going to happen,” Governor Spencer Cox told The Salt Lake Tribune last week. “The very first phase will be natural gas, but the other phases should not be. They should be nuclear, and they should be geothermal, and solar and other technology.”

Read more here: https://grist.org/accountability/data- ... stratos/

[firestar464]

wtf did I just read

there is so much that is wrong with this project

[wjfox]

[firestar464]

More on that by MarketWatch:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-o ... n-95fcd513

[weatheriscool]

World's first undersea data center powered by offshore wind is online
By Bronwyn Thompson
June 01, 2026

https://newatlas.com/energy/china-under ... ter-opens/
Just over seven months from completing phase one of this mega-project, Chinese engineers have finished the build and switched on the world's first underwater data center (UDC) powered by offshore wind turbines. What's more, it doesn't need freshwater and cuts land use by more than 90% compared with above-ground centers.

We reported on the big build in October 2025, when the first stage had been constructed. At the time, there was no projected timeline for it to become operational. The underwater infrastructure, off the coast of Shanghai in the Lin-hang Special Area, was officially switched on in late May, and it's far more impressive than it may sound on paper.

Data centers don’t need freshwater to function – but it remains the simplest cooling option, as it puts fewer demands on surrounding infrastructure, thanks to its lower levels of salts, minerals and biological impurities that can corrode pipes or reduce cooling efficiency over time. Unlike many inland facilities that still rely on freshwater, UDCs instead use the surrounding ocean as a heat sink, transferring this heat through sealed cooling systems.

This center, built by a subsidiary of China Communications Construction, uses a circulating copper-pipe heat exchange system that reportedly reduces electricity consumption by 22.8%. Offshore wind farms are also estimated to generate 95% of the electricity needed to run its 192 server racks across four levels, significantly reducing reliance on existing power infrastructure.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Kevin O’Leary says he will shrink his Utah AI data center project after political backlash

June 4, 2026, 3:53 PM GMT+1

WASHINGTON — Celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary had appeared to dig in his heels in recent days after facing backlash on all sides over a planned 40,000-acre AI data center campus in Utah — which would be roughly twice the size of Manhattan. But now he’s willing to shrink the project.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/ ... rcna348430