fueled by chyna propaganda ...
NIMBYs gotta NIMBY. If it isn’t this, it’s power plants or pipelines. Yet they still want to participate in modern society.
Chinese propaganda efforts are impressive.
This article alone:
1. pushes the lie that data systems are water hogs. (They aren’t; they are closed loop like the radiator in your car.)
2. Pushes the idea they suck up electricity. (They don’t; they have redundant electrical provision and generally build their own power source that makes the grid stronger with more redundancy.
Mark Twain observed it’s harder to convince someone they’ve been defrauded than to defraud in the first place. This hysteria proves Twain right yet again.
Or do what I do. If an old stupid leftist like Willie Nelson is against it; then you should probably be for it.
Local politicians are getting kickbacks for putting these in against the will of the people.
Hey, c’mon, SKYNET and the Total Surveillance State ain’t gonna build itself, ya know.
The complaint against these data centers, is that they are very wasteful of resources, specifically in terms of land and available energy generation capacity.
The land comes into the equation, because there is some sort of notion that the energy may only be generated from “renewable” green energy means, i.e., wind and/or solar, both very inefficient and unreliable as they are now designed. Both these approaches take up land that precludes their use for any other purpose, and being unreliable, require the “back-up” power generation systems using natural gas, fuel oil, or coal essential for reliability. In retrospect, this redundancy is a little stupid, why not rely entirely on the natural gas, fuel oil, or coal alone for the necessary power demand? Much less requirement for diversion of land into solar or windmill “farms”, and much less of a blight on the landscape.
In fact, go directly to on-site power generation from nuclear reactors, the Small Modular Reactor designs now in the final stages of development, and market ready, that take up very little real estate, and can generate all the power right on the work site of these data centers, perhaps in enough quantity that some of the excess energy can be sold on the local grid, a plus for the community in which the data center is located.
An elegant win-win for all.
Data centers are going to be built. They will be built whether they are in the US or not.
And the place where they are built will have access to every bit of data that flows through them.
That’s cool, huh?
No reason to rebel — as long as the data centers are paying their own way and observing the same land use rules as other entities.
Unfortunately, some opponents are worried about internet abuses and taking out their concerns on data centers, rather than addressing the abuses directly and individually.
Data centers are good for communities if they are properly planned for. I have seen the development plans for them - they plans include massive investment in infrastructure including huge investment in increasing power generation. Those plans are reviewed and tested by credible third party engineers, energy advisors and urban architects. It probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that Florida is probably more on the ball about having a good planning process than other states.
But if you have a corrupt local planning commission or county zoning board who are in bed with the developer then yes, putting a data center into a community can turn into a disaster.
I have not understood all the issues with data centers.
I have not understood why this has become a big issue in the news.
I have not understood the need for data centers. The internet and cell phones as we know them have been around for decades, and have functioned without all these massive data centers that are apparently being built. So why is there such a need for the data centers?
And what are the actual facts? Opponents say they use up too much electricity, and too much water. Is that true or not? We hear conflicting things about that.
What about jobs? Some people say these data centers create jobs. Other people say these data centers create virtually no jobs in a community.
Personally, I would like to know more about it.And would like to know the actual facts.
And I even wonder if this gets political. Should I, as a Free Republic conservative, feel a certain way about data centers because of politics?
People are so incredibly stupid.
Hey Robert, nice! I like that.
Hardly.
That clueless Indian disaster candidate Vivek that Trump
pushed on us was BOOED off the stage in Ohio peddling these date centers. That Gov race looks way over sadly.
These foreigners are classless to what real Americans think.
These data centers were not well planned.
They are Noisy and Ugly as hell and their water and electric usage are tough.
My Gop county voted out in the primary all the county commissioners that okayed
one. The homes near the place are unsellable.
The new folks plan to redo the turbines and camouflage the exterior with big trees.
AI is probably a real threat but an inevitable development that must be controlled and its threats dispelled.
Opposing data center construction seems like a silly strut-in-the-yard. It won't stop AI. It would be smarter to focus efforts on controlling AI and dispelling its threats.
Bkmk
Have you or anyone else ever seen an industrial or residential development that paid it’s way for the infrastructure improvements needed for all the brought with them? I have not either.
Ramaswamy has an interesting take on this in Ohio, especially regarding NIMBY. Owner of data center pays electric bills for surrounding community. I’m thinkin kinda along the lines of how Alaskans get oil dividends.
The Chinese are very pleased as a result. I assure you there’s no pushback there. Compute power will be the measurement of sovereign power in the same way industrial capacity was the measure of sovereign power in WWII.
Ah, the CCP is winning. Every datacenter can be constructed with restrictions in place that minimize if not eliminate any real (not imagined) problems.
Objecting to all is simply doing what the CCP pays anti-Jewish rioters to do — cripple the US.