They are reopening Iowa’s only nuke plant (and doubling its capacity) to power 5 new data centers in Cedar Rapids. Supposedly they are tapping a deeper aquafer than we use. Hopefully our wells won’t be affected.
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.
“Supposedly they are tapping a deeper aquafer than we use. Hopefully our wells wonβt be affected.”
Didn’t realize that was aquifers were being used for cooling. Definitely compounds the problem of increasing electricity capacity!
“They are reopening Iowaβs only nuke plant (and doubling its capacity) to power 5 new data centers in Cedar Rapids.”
Not yet approved.
“Supposedly they are tapping a deeper aquafer than we use. Hopefully our wells wonβt be affected.”
Supposedly? Plant is cooled by river.
For later