Posted on 09/20/2024 8:42:00 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Ah, THE FUTURE!
It is weirdly starting to look like the past, no?
While the Green grifters are busy making sure people's lives get less comfortable and more expensive every day, as the things that once made a "standard of living" worth attaining are stripped away piece by piece...
...some of the wealthiest in the EAT THE BUGS crowd have the wherewithal to take a different approach by virtue of their place in the economic food chain - at the pinnacle.
Not relegated to gluing themselves to the floors of Porsche showrooms or flinging tomato soup at old masterpieces, these are the big thinkers, the entrepreneurs, the exceptional who provide the funds to keep the agitating storm troops noisy and occupied while they go about the real business of enforcing the change they want imposed on the world's population.
Sometimes, they meet resistance, like, say, with substituting bugs for burgers.
Not happening.
In other cases, they get pretty far along implementing their agenda until suddenly they meet a stubborn wall of angry citizens. A majority feel abused and betrayed by what were obviously ill-thought-out schemes to serve a questionable premise. Take EV and heat pump mandates and "renewable energy sources" for "cheap" electricity generation. None of these proved true and made a once comfortable life difficult and generally miserable.
Sometimes, though, their New World Order/WEF plans just happen to conflict with the fervor of their ardent, spittle-flecked supporters and reconcile with the real-life needs of the knuckle-dragging classes.
This is one of those amazing moments.
Bill "Eat the Bugs/Solar Geoengineering" Gates - Microsft founder, gazillionaire, and obsessive climate cultist in every aspect of control, from the atmosphere to what people are allowed to ingest - sees artificial intelligence (AI) as the next big thing. He has his Microsoft dudes heavily into planning AI data centers to develop and promote the technology in all its forms and uses.
The thing about AI is that it requires tremendous amounts of energy to run the equipment in just one data center, less mind the multitudes he and other creatives like Elon Musk envision.
With states slavishly embracing the Green fantasy of relying on renewables with natural gas, coal, and nuclear being prematurely phased out sans replacement generation coming online, leading to aging grids now browning out in what used to be routine circumstances, where is that additional power to come from?
In Elon's case, a controversial ad hoc arrangement for his xAI data center outside of Memphis - natural gas generators until someone can cough up enough juice. The local utility is no way able to come even close at the moment.
As you can imagine, so, yeah, Memphis wants the jobs, but heads are 'sploding over the power issue and the "dirty" turbines he's making up the shortage with.
...For instance, there’s a major divide between how much electricity xAI wants to use, and how much MLGW can provide. In August, the utility company said that xAI would have access to 50 megawatts of power. But xAI wants to use triple that amount—which, for comparison, is enough energy to power 80,000 households.
MLGW said in a statement to TIME that xAI is paying for the technical upgrades that enable them to double their power usage—and that in order for the company to reach the full 150 megawatts, there will need to be $1.7 million in improvements to a transmission line. “There will be no impact to the reliability of availability of power to other customers from this electric load,” the company wrote. They also added that xAI would be required to reduce its electricity consumption during times of peak demand, and that any infrastructure improvement costs would not be borne by taxpayers.
In response to complaints about the lack of communication with council members, MLGW wrote: “xAI's request does not require approvals from the MLGW Board of Commissioners or City Council.”
But community members worry whether Memphis’s utilities can handle such a large consumer of energy. In the past, the city’s power grid has been forced into rolling blackouts by ice storms and other severe weather events.
And Garcia, at the SELC, says that while xAI waits for more power to become available, they’ve turned to non-legal measures to sate their demand, by installing gas combustion turbines on the site that they are operating without a permit. Garcia says the SELC has observed the installation of 18 such turbines, which have the capacity to emit 130 tons of harmful nitrogen oxides per year. The SELC and community groups sent a letter to the Shelby County Health Department demanding their removal—but the health department responded by claiming the turbines were out of their authority, and referred them to the EPA. The EPA told NPR that it was “looking into the matter.” A representative for xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gates, on the other hand, had already been moving in a different direction - nuclear. In 2008, he helped found a nuclear energy company called TerraPower, and this past June, they broke ground in Kemmerer, Wyoming, on the company's first power plant.
...The demonstration plant will be home to TerraPower’s Natrium nuclear reactor, which is cooled with liquid sodium as opposed to water and features a molten salt-based energy storage system, all of which makes for a safer, cheaper and more efficient energy machine that can be built for around half the cost of a water-cooled reactor.
The reactor produces 345 megawatts and can have its output boosted to 500 megawatts for more than five-and-a-half hours if need be, which is the equivalent of the energy needed to power around 400,000 homes.TerraPower has secured up to $2 billion in pledges from the U.S. government to complete work on the plant and nearly $1 billion in private funding, in addition to reaching a deal with Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation to explore the exportation of TerraPower’s Natrium reactors to the United Arab Emirates.
But if it all goes according to plan the WY reactor doesn't come online until 2030, and Gates has other AI centers in construction who will need power long before that.
What's the answer?
Use nearby available power generation resources that are sitting idle...and who cares why they shut down in the first place? Gates needs them now.
FIRE UP THOSE BIG, BEAUTIFUL TOWERS
Constellation Energy to restart Three Mile Island nuclear plant, sell the power to Microsoft for AI
Constellation Energy plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant and will sell the power to Microsoft, demonstrating the immense energy needs of the tech sector as they build out data centers to support artificial intelligence.
Constellation expects the Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island near Middletown, Pennsylvania, to come back online in 2028, subject to approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the company announced Friday. Constellation also plans to apply to extend the plant’s operations to at least 2054.
Constellation stock jumped about 15% in trading. Shares have more than doubled year to date.
Microsoft will purchase electricity from the plant in a 20-year agreement to match the energy its data centers consume with carbon-free power. Constellation described the agreement with Microsoft as the largest power purchase agreement that the nuclear plant operator has ever signed.
“The decision here is the most powerful symbol of the rebirth of nuclear power as a clean and reliable energy resource,” Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez told investors on a call Friday morning.
Oh, I bet the neighbors go ape-Schlitz when they hear this.
And just so we're clear - reopening TMI won't benefit anyone BUT the Microsoft data centers. They are buying every last MW that burps out of that place at a rumored $100+KW
BREAKING: @CEGCleanEnergy announces plans to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1.
The company signed a 20-year power purchase agreement to provide carbon-free electricity for @Microsoft data centers.
Learn more: https://t.co/yixGZ9SDlf pic.twitter.com/TAQl4N45Qd— Office of Nuclear Energy (@GovNuclear) September 20, 2024
That's the power of mega-money, my friends.
As much as I despise Gates and everything his Davos crowd stands for, the one silver lining in this is the nascent resurgence of nuclear. This sort of thing is on a scale that we of the knuckle-dragging classes can't truly affect on our own. It takes a deal of this magnitude to kick the nuclear movement in the ass, get it going, and keep it rolling over the obstacles yet to come at it.
Easily one of the most indicative moments as the U.S. grapples with surging electric power demand: the restart of Three Mile Island.
Get ready for all the dubious claims about the incident to resurface... https://t.co/rIjz1pd67w— Steve Everley (@saeverley) September 20, 2024
Even with Gates involved, all I can say is let it glow.
Maybe they'll eventually shine some of that rarified light on the rest of us.
No way to conduct heat in space (no air) and NEO space is about 35C which is far too warm for computing.
Standard modern graphics card (RTX 4090) pulls ~450W. That’s ~3.75A at 120V max or 3A at 80% capacity. A small cluster of these (3x) would be 9A at 80% capacity.
Enterprise computing platforms use NVIDIA A100 chips in some cases. These are 2 rack unit (RU) servers with 2x A100 chips at 300W max power draw rating per chip (~480W or 4A at 80%). A standard server rack is 48U with some room for networking equipment, so assume 18 servers per rack (72A at 120VAC or 8.64 kW). Many data centers use a hot aisle/cold aisle pod model where each pod has 10 racks with 2 central dedicated racks for core networking or 8 racks total (69.12 kW). Each aisle has 2 pods cooled (138.24 kW), and there are likely anywhere from 500-1000 pods per floor in a datacenter, depending on total area (69.12 MW at 500 pods). Assume 3 floors per datacenter and you’re at 207.36 MW.
One reactor at TMI puts out ~825 MW, so factor in HVAC, electrical, plus all of the ancillary things in a datacenter (storage, backup hardware, networking equipment, they’re likely close to 500 MW total draw. Plenty of room for error in my calculations.
FWIW, Elon’s requested 150 megawatts to run xai is the equivalent of 428 EV fast chargers running at the full 350kW. So it’s a reminder that a city’s grid can’t handle a large transition to EV’s.
https://qz.com/ai-bitcoin-mining-1851623128 (August 2024)
AI-powered Bitcoin mining would be a game changer — but not without challenges
Major Bitcoin miners are already incorporating AI into their systems
Artificial intelligence is rapidly making its way into nearly every industry, and Bitcoin mining is no exception. The process of generating new Bitcoin by solving complex mathematical problems has grown increasingly competitive and intriguing, prompting miners to integrate AI into their operations.
Miners believe that generative artificial intelligence could soon play a pivotal role in enhancing the infrastructure of Bitcoin mining. As the industry faces increasing pressure to improve efficiency and remain profitable, especially after the halving event, AI offers a promising solution.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61364(February 2024)
Tracking electricity consumption from U.S. cryptocurrency mining operations
Electricity demand associated with U.S. cryptocurrency mining operations in the United States has grown very rapidly over the last several years. Our preliminary estimates suggest that annual electricity use from cryptocurrency mining probably represents from 0.6% to 2.3% of U.S. electricity consumption.
This additional electricity use has drawn the attention of policymakers and grid planners concerned about its effects on cost, reliability, and emissions. Key challenges associated with tracking cryptocurrency mining energy use include the difficulty of identifying cryptocurrency mining activity among millions of U.S. end-use customers and the dynamic nature of the crypto market, where mining assets can be moved rapidly to areas with lower electricity prices.
Although cryptocurrency mining began in the United States about a decade ago, the activity began to expand rapidly in 2019. Recent growth is largely due to cryptocurrency mining operations relocating to the United States from China after that country cracked down on digital currency mining in 2021, though reports indicate that there may still be some mining in China. As cryptocurrency mining has increased in the United States, concerns have grown about the energy-intensive nature of the business and its effects on the U.S. electric power industry. Concerns expressed to EIA include strains to the electricity grid during periods of peak demand, the potential for higher electricity prices, as well as effects on energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Grid planners have also begun to express concern over the rapid growth in electricity demand associated with cryptocurrency mining. For example, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) indicates in its latest long-term reliability assessment that “due to unique characteristics of the operations associated with cryptocurrency mining, potential growth can have a significant effect on demand and resource projections as well as system operations.”
…Larger networks of mining units can be configured to increase the computational power. One way to assess the size of a network is the number of and type of mining units at each site. Individual cryptocurrency facilities we identified can employ 10,000 to 20,000 mining units, although the largest facilities are known to have as many as 100,000 mining units in operation. Because these networks consist of modular units, operators can relocate their equipment so long as they can construct facilities that protect and control the climate of the networked mining units. Mining units are often stacked in containers for relatively quick and economical transport.
The primary operating cost of a cryptocurrency mining facility is expenditure for electricity. The computational effort needed to support profitable cryptocurrency mining consumes large amounts of electricity to operate the machines as well as to cool equipment to prevent overheating. Consequently, owners are constantly seeking various alternatives to acquire substantial amounts of power at the lowest possible cost.
…cryptocurrency mining can be performed with facilities of many sizes, ranging from individual workstations to massive data centers...
This estimate of U.S. electricity demand supporting cryptocurrency mining would equal annual demand ranging from more than three million to more than six million homes. The low end of the range would equal annual electricity usage for entire states such as Utah and West Virginia, among others. Note that the CBECI-based estimates provided here are only based on Bitcoin and do not include other proof of work cryptocurrencies.
We have been able to track electricity use at a group of five small U.S. power plants in Montana, New York, and Pennsylvania where cryptocurrency mining has occurred. The combined power generation at these five generating facilities rose sharply beginning in 2021 when cryptocurrency miners established operations. Once more, the amount of direct use electricity within the plant itself—used to feed the mining operations—has increased to a larger percentage of the plant’s output. Prior to the installation of the cryptocurrency mining equipment, output from the five plants had been much lower. The previous underutilization of these power plants has attracted cryptocurrency miners to these facilities given prospects of dedicated electricity at low rates.
Climate change, Climate change, Climate change! Everyone must cut way down on their energy consumption... well, everyone but gov who gets to increase their energy consumption 100 times over
Bitcoin mining.??
This world is getting really weird.. :(
“What’s it gonna do for the average citizen? Track their every bit of data.”
Data collection is only as good as how dedicated your minimum wage, fat, mall guards are to protecting the stuff. My reading is that given a choice of defending Gates bits to the death or going home to watch TV and eat pizza, that pepperoni pizza wins everytime.
With DEI employees what could go wrong.
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