AI Data Centers are raising concerns about Electricity Availability

[Melensdad]

We need to build some nuclear generation plants.

And before those get up and running, we need to get some new Natural Gas generation facilities up and running because those can be built much quicker.

But if AI is what they claim, and if it will eat up as much energy as they claim, then we better get going on building up our energy PRODUCTION or we are going to crash our grid.

From JUST THE NEWS foundation:

Concerns being raised about the electricity demands from AI data centers

The Great Lakes region is an increasingly desired spot for data centers because of the availability of water and its cooler climate that reduces energy demand.

justthenews.com

Concerns being raised about the electricity demands from AI data centers​

The Great Lakes region is an increasingly desired spot for data centers because of the availability of water and its cooler climate that reduces energy demand.​

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As the state of Illinois moves to mothball coal plants and transition to renewable energy, there are concerns that artificial intelligence data centers could be a drag on the power grid.​

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The subject came up Tuesday during an Illinois House Energy and Environment Committee hearing.​

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The Great Lakes region is an increasingly desired spot for data centers because of the availability of water and its cooler climate that reduces energy demand.​

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Clean energy advocates in the Midwest say data centers pose both a risk and an opportunity, as they can put major stress on the grid, but also facilitate significant renewable energy investment. Illinois Commerce Commission Executive Director Jonathan Feipel said the state should not have to steer away from its clean energy goals from the Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA).​

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“We hear a lot from different sectors that the only solution here is to walk back the CEJA decarbonization goals,” said Feipel. “I don’t feel like we are in that place today.”​

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State Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, then asked Feipel if there is enough energy currently to run the data centers along with homes and businesses.​

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“With the former coal generation plants that are going to mothball because of the legislation, what is the reason you say it is not time to roll those initiatives back,” said Halbrook.​

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“Let me put it this way, if we all sat and did nothing then we would have a significant problem when we get to 2030,” said Feipel.​

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Feipel said the state needs to develop additional sources of renewable energy and efficiency programs.​

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U.S. energy provider Exelon has calculated that power demand from data centers in the Chicago area is set to explode, and AI adoption will put a further strain on electricity supplies.​

 

[waybomb]

Just wait till the summer, with a week long stalled high pressure dome, 95+ degrees, humid, and no wind.
You get what you vote for.

 

[Melensdad]

Just wait till the summer, with a week long stalled high pressure dome, 95+ degrees, humid, and no wind.
You get what you vote for.

People think those windmills work 24/7 but they actually don't work very well at night because winds generally calm down when the sun goes down as the heat source creating wind currents is on the wrong side of the planet. Not sure what % of drop off there is when the sun goes down but I drive through a wind farm the sits mostly idle at night.

 

[waybomb]

Non engineers doing engineering things. No consideration for base load.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Just as I was reading this thread the power went off at 11:45 pm. It's supposed to be 15°F tonight. Some people are going to suffer and I don't just mean the guys out trying to fix the outage. I hope they get it turned back on soon.

PS. Our generator is humming like a Rolls Royce. Long may it continue.

 

[Melensdad]

While the Biden Admin was funneling BILLION$ of dollar$ to his donors and friends, our ability to generate needed energy was being sidelined.

'Serious Conflicts of Interest': Biden EPA Official Oversaw $5B Grant to His Former Employer

The senior Biden administration official tasked with directing former President Joe Biden's $27 billion climate grant program oversaw a $5 billion grant from the program to his former employer, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

freebeacon.com

'Serious Conflicts of Interest': Biden EPA Official Oversaw $5B Grant to His Former Employer​

Jahi Wise joined George Soros's foundation shortly after disbursing the funds​

Thomas Catenacci​

Jahi Wise speaks at a conference (Opportunity Finance Network/YouTube)​

The senior Biden administration official tasked with directing former President Joe Biden's $27 billion climate grant program oversaw a $5 billion grant from the program to his former employer, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.​

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Jahi Wise joined the Environmental Protection Agency in December 2022 as the founding director of the newly created Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, or GGRF, according to his LinkedIn profile. In April 2024, while Wise served in that role, the EPA announced that it would award GGRF grants totaling $20 billion to just eight nonprofits, including the Coalition for Green Capital, a Washington, D.C.-based group that received $5 billion as part of the announcement and where Wise previously worked as the director of policy. There is no indication that Wise recused himself from that process.​

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Wise departed the Coalition for Green Capital in January 2021 to join the White House Climate Policy Office as a special assistant to the president, a position he held until he joined the EPA less than two years later.​

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The EPA's $5 billion grant to the Coalition for Green Capital and Wise's involvement is also notable because former Biden administration official David Hayes serves on the group's board of directors. Hayes rejoined the group's board in October 2022 after having served as a special assistant to the president in the White House Climate Policy Office since January 2021, meaning he and Wise were close colleagues at the White House for roughly 21 months.​

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After joining the Coalition for Green Capital's board, Hayes said he was "hopeful that tens of billions of dollars of additional clean power investment, focused on low-income and disadvantaged communities, lies in the immediate future of CGC." The group simultaneously appointed Cecilia Martinez, who had served as a Biden White House environmental justice official, to its board, saying the pair would be involved in its forthcoming Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund application submission.​

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The revelation that Wise was involved in doling out a massive grant benefiting both his former employer and former White House colleague raises serious ethics and conflict-of-interest questions, experts told the Washington Free Beacon. Federal ethics laws place strict limits on officials' involvement in matters involving past employers.​

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It also provides fresh fodder for Trump administration officials who have set the GGRF program and its massive grants in their sights. On Tuesday, Denise Cheung, the top criminal prosecutor in the Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney’s Office, was forced to resign after she declined to open a grand jury investigation into the EPA's GGRF program funding, CNN first reported.​

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"The story of the Biden EPA’s gold bars never stops," EPA administrator Lee Zeldin told the Free Beacon. "The waste and abuse was so deeply interwoven in the last administration that not only did the leaders who oversaw this not bat an eye at billions of your taxpayer dollars going towards partisan pet projects, but serious conflicts of interest were ignored. That should have raised red flags."​

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Zeldin—who added that he is "committed to restoring accountability in government, focusing the agency on its core mission"—announced last week that he and White House DOGE officials located the $20 billion in GGRF funds, including the Coalition for Green Capital's $5 billion grant, in a Citibank account. He said clawing back those funds is a priority and said the placement of the funds at an outside bank limits federal oversight.​

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The Biden EPA appears to have parked those funds at Citibank in August 2024, a first-of-its-kind arrangement at the EPA, shortly before Wise departed the agency. In September 2024, Wise joined billionaire Democratic donor George Soros's behemoth nonprofit the Open Society Institute as a "leadership in government" fellow—during the 18-month fellowship, Wise will study policies that accelerate the mobilization of public and private capital into climate projects.​

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The Coalition for Green Capital and Wise did not respond to requests for comment.​

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"For years, Protect the Public’s Trust and others have been warning of the GGRF's potential for abuse, to say nothing of the greater IRA," said Michael Chamberlain, the director of watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust. . . . CORRUPTION STORY CONTINUES at The Washington Free Beacon link above ^^^​

 

[bczoom]

The 3-mile island nuclear plant is coming back online.
All the power generation is being sold to Microsoft for their AI.

Why Microsoft made a deal to help restart Three Mile Island

A once-shuttered nuclear plant could soon return to the grid.

www.technologyreview.com

 

[waybomb]

The 3-mile island nuclear plant is coming back online.
All the power generation is being sold to Microsoft for their AI.

Why Microsoft made a deal to help restart Three Mile Island

A once-shuttered nuclear plant could soon return to the grid.

www.technologyreview.com

I wonder what the deal was. How much are we paying for Microsoft power.

As for Palisades, the bitch Witmer sit out down as wifi as she could after it's license expired, instead of fighting to keep it going. Solar and wind was going to save the day. 1.5 billion later, it's coming back. We could have saved that money. F'n Democrats.