It actually makes more sense to build them in Alberta than most of the US to be honest. If these things are going to be run off fossil fuels anyway, it is more efficient to build them local to the fuel rather than building pipelines to ship it elsewhere then burning it there to run those data centers.
The article says itself that the data center is planned to be closed loop water (so effectively no water use) but then assumes that the natural gas power plant WILL be consuming water, when those too can be built with closed loop water systems.
Personally I’d like to see all datacenters require 100% renewable power going forward, but that’s not realistically happening.
Thousand acre ai compute facilities offer significant drawbacks and no tangible benefits to Alberta.
Personally I’d like to see all datacenters require 100% renewable power going forward, but that’s not realistically happening.
Do not expect that to ever happen. Meta’s facility will use 1GW of power. Right now as I write this, Alberta is generating a total of 10GW. There are something like 25GW of proposed data centre projects in the queue for the province. Renewables cannot and will not be used for facilities that use this much power. It’s impossible.
Where the fuck did you get your numbers? Alberta has almost 25 GW of installed capacity right now, and peak demand of something in the neighborhood of 13-14 GW
In 2024, they installed about 1.4GW of Solar and Wind alone.
You’re aware that the wind isn’t always blowing, and the sun isn’t always shining, right?
It’s critical to understand the difference between MC and TNG. You should learn about them before going off on people. It’s clear you don’t understand how the energy grid works.
LCOS for batteries at this point is low enough to make even “the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing” renewables viable.
If renewables are so poor a choice for power, why are they being built in such massive quantities even in places that hate renewables?
Maybe if you understood how the world worked better, you wouldn’t get so focused on arguing about what used to be possible and instead focus on what is possible now.
Instead, you’re arguing to not build datacenters in Alberta and instead have them in the US because… renewables aren’t always available?
You’re in this thread hoping that paradigm shifts in battery tech, AB building refineries, and using what you incorrectly assumed is 10GW of unused headroom in the power grid, all for ai compute facilities.
I’m not sure why you’re gunning so hard for ai compute facilities to be built in Alberta specifically, and your unsophisticated understanding of the way energy works makes it hard to take your position seriously.
Oh good gravy. Data centres should be in the USA
It actually makes more sense to build them in Alberta than most of the US to be honest. If these things are going to be run off fossil fuels anyway, it is more efficient to build them local to the fuel rather than building pipelines to ship it elsewhere then burning it there to run those data centers.
The article says itself that the data center is planned to be closed loop water (so effectively no water use) but then assumes that the natural gas power plant WILL be consuming water, when those too can be built with closed loop water systems.
Personally I’d like to see all datacenters require 100% renewable power going forward, but that’s not realistically happening.
Thousand acre ai compute facilities offer significant drawbacks and no tangible benefits to Alberta.
Do not expect that to ever happen. Meta’s facility will use 1GW of power. Right now as I write this, Alberta is generating a total of 10GW. There are something like 25GW of proposed data centre projects in the queue for the province. Renewables cannot and will not be used for facilities that use this much power. It’s impossible.
Where the fuck did you get your numbers? Alberta has almost 25 GW of installed capacity right now, and peak demand of something in the neighborhood of 13-14 GW
In 2024, they installed about 1.4GW of Solar and Wind alone.
https://ippsa.com/industry
I said 10GW generation not capacity, pay attention.
How does that invalidate the fact that there is 10-12 GW of spare capacity above peak demand already built?
Or that there was 1.4GW of capacity installed in 2024 that could be used to power this kind of data center?
How are your arguments in any way actual arguments against building this?
You’re aware that the wind isn’t always blowing, and the sun isn’t always shining, right?
It’s critical to understand the difference between MC and TNG. You should learn about them before going off on people. It’s clear you don’t understand how the energy grid works.
I can throw acronyms around too.
LCOS for batteries at this point is low enough to make even “the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing” renewables viable.
If renewables are so poor a choice for power, why are they being built in such massive quantities even in places that hate renewables?
Maybe if you understood how the world worked better, you wouldn’t get so focused on arguing about what used to be possible and instead focus on what is possible now.
Instead, you’re arguing to not build datacenters in Alberta and instead have them in the US because… renewables aren’t always available?
You’re in this thread hoping that paradigm shifts in battery tech, AB building refineries, and using what you incorrectly assumed is 10GW of unused headroom in the power grid, all for ai compute facilities.
I’m not sure why you’re gunning so hard for ai compute facilities to be built in Alberta specifically, and your unsophisticated understanding of the way energy works makes it hard to take your position seriously.