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

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

I'd like to see them placed at least 1000 miles from earth.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

What's amazing is these same dumb arguments are being used against wind power...Well, they make too much noise so we don't want them.

Yet everyone is using the energy generated and everyone is using the a.i.

I wouldn't at all be shocked to see China promoting this.

[firestar464]

Problem is, data centers are actually loud, while the same is not so for wind turbines.

[caltrek]

People Living Near xAI’s Dirty Data Centers Are Right Pissed About the SpaceX IPO
By Molly Taft
June 15, 2026

Extract:

(Mother Jones)… even as Musk and other SpaceX investors see a huge windfall, the community hosting xAI data centers already in operation are demanding accountability from the company’s use of polluting gas turbines and a water-treatment facility put on pause earlier this year.

“We’re the extracted and exploited colony of what is going to be one of the most highly valued entities in the world,” says Justin Pearson, who represents portions of Memphis in the Tennessee House of Representatives. “People are going to die because of this pollution.”
…
xAI’s Colossus 1 campus in Memphis shot to national notoriety in 2024 when community members began sounding the alarm that the company was running natural gas turbines without permits. Regulators said that a loophole in the Clean Air Act allowed xAI to run what appeared to be as many as 35 turbines without a permit for a year. (Last year, local regulators granted xAI a permit to run 15 turbines on the site until 2027.)

Natural gas turbines emit microscopic particles of fine particulate matter, dubbed PM2.5, which is linked to a variety of health issues, including heart attacks, high blood pressure, and premature deaths in people with preexisting conditions. Experts warn that PM2.5 pollution can be harmful even below levels set by regulators.
…
A group of environmental justice groups, led by the NAACP, filed a lawsuit earlier this year against xAI, alleging that the company installed gas turbines “without an air permit or regard for the health and safety of people living nearby.” Earlier this week, residents of Southaven filed a separate class-action lawsuit against xAI and SpaceX, claiming that construction on the data center was disturbing the community.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... -asthma/

[caltrek]

Building Data Centers in Space is an Intriguing Idea on Paper, but Major Engineering Challenges Must be Solved
By Sven G. Bilén and Wangda Zuo'
June 16, 2026

Introduction:

(The Conversation) Imagine if one company could become the railroad, electric utility and cloud-computing provider of the emerging space economy. That potential fueled excitement around the long-anticipated initial public offering of SpaceX. Investors are not simply betting on rockets anymore. They are betting on an entire orbital ecosystem.

Among the most ambitious and challenging ideas riding this wave of enthusiasm is something that sounds almost like science fiction: orbital data centers. SpaceX may be one of the most well-known companies seeking to build them, but it is not the only one.

The logic is seductive: Launch the data centers into orbit, where solar energy is abundant and land, water and local power grids are no longer constraints. As artificial intelligence drives an explosion in computing demand, companies are pitching orbital data centers as a way to escape the growing environmental and infrastructure pressures of Earth-based computing. Data centers often also face backlash from the public at having these centers located in their communities.

But there is a vast difference between launching satellites and operating an industrial-scale computing infrastructure in orbit. Space is unforgiving. Radiation damages electronics. The electronics generate enormous amounts of heat, and getting rid of that heat is surprisingly difficult in space. Repairs are extraordinarily expensive, and every pound launched into orbit still carries a significant cost.

We are engineering professors who study data center design and space systems engineering. Building a space-based data center will involve considerations from both sides.

Read more here: https://theconversation.com/building-d ... d-284053

[weatheriscool]

[caltrek]

^^^ Even if we grant the premise that AI data centers are needed for social media, it does not follow that social media users should be for data center construction no matter what. Like any other industrial construction activity, environmental impacts and economic feasibility need to be considered. Environmental impact analysis can result in the adoption of sensible mitigation measures. These measures can influence location decisions, encourage the use of renewable energy sources, and adoption of measures designed to avoid water pollution problems. This should not be another matter of externalizing costs while internalizing profits.