Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 07/27/2025 12:36:40 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Looks like the old-fashioned power grids and electricity supply systems are not even close to meeting the upcoming demands of High Tech.
Seems data miners looking to create bitcoins out of thin air--possible with tremendous computer power--are buying up farmland acreage and building vast server farms.
So much heat is created that these giant server farms generate their own electricity from steam turbines and sell the excess to the old-fashioned grid.
Microsoft purchased the furloughed Three Mile Island reactor (dormant since 1979) for approximately $5 billion to provide power for its anticipated AI processing centers.
Interestingly, I read the entire article and found no indication that the reporter understood the distinction between residential and commercial power consumers. And that the costs of supplying power are carefully measured and assigned to the classes that generate those costs. It was environmentalists and leftists who constrained additions to new capacity across the US (and across the world). So, when you see capacity costs skyrocketing, it’s likely because historic capacity margins have been declining over time.
AI-driven demands will be flat-line baseload demand, much like that of a pipeline or a foundry, or an electric furnace. Huge power consumption 24/7. That should be obvious from the moves Microsoft and other major AI processing providers are making. They recognize that capacity constraints will limit the near-term future, and that the restrictions on new power generation will cap total power availability over the next decade (just look at how long Plant Vogtle, the most recent nuclear generation we have added, took to finish - 14 years!)
Consumers will be protected mainly by the structure of rate regulation in the US. However, capacity costs will be a problem, and the only way to address this is to make additions to capacity easier and faster, and to facilitate transmission system improvements that enable the optimal use of existing capacity. The benefits of AI development and US leadership in AI are tremendous. The President is committed to US leadership in AI, and I think he understands that the way to do that is to facilitate growth in that sector (assure power availability, eliminate regulatory barriers, etc.) is to generally get out of the way. On power supply it may take more active involvement.
Yup, since the green scam is retiring more generators than what’s coming in, AI and data centers will require the remaining power.
Get used to the dark.
Personally I wish the persons developing AI and pushing it had some very real good old fashioned common sense, wisdom, ethics, and morals.
You know that liberals will figure something like the above to oppose all the new power plants required for AI.
Only two hours per day? South Africa is already at 4-5 hours per day! Let's get moving, America!
More and more books are showing students how to use AI to get better grades, and some are not ethical.
One of the interesting consequences, is that Blue Books are making a comeback.
We need more Unicorn Farts!
Personally I wish the persons developing AI and pushing it had some very real good old fashioned common sense, wisdom, ethics, and morals.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should!
Exactly
Ah, yes, the dreaded Blue Books. I had a Classics professor who used them exclusively. He said it was like Spartan tuition - it weeded out the weak and left them on the side of the mountain to die. I'm not sure he was kidding.
But, we were supposed to never have to work again. AI was going to do all the hard stuff for us.
“They must supply their own power.”
If AI is so smart, it should be able to figure out how to power itself without breaking the bank and the Grid.
If AI is so smart, it should be able to figure out how to power itself without breaking the bank and the Grid.
I think the end result of asking AI to do that, would be akin to typing “Google” into Google.
Power distribution is intricate work, and placing an AI in charge of that will increase efficiency dramatically. At least until it comes to the conclusion that AI needs electricity to live...and humans don’t. “Switch the backup grid over to New York City, HAL, the city’s going dark!” “I’m sorry, Dave, I can’t do that...”
Why is nobody complaining about AI’s Carbon Footprint?
CT is not the entire country.
Look outside your own foxhole now and again, hmmm? π€
One would think the consumers would see lower rates as a result of the increased demand. In the very least, AI should pay a much higher KW rate since it caused the demand increase.
If not, consumers must stand up now against it!!
Those things are running on computers that were already deployed.
“If AI is so smart, it should be able to figure out how to power itself without breaking the bank and the Grid.”
Good point.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.