Thread

Oracle on the hook to pay data centre investors even if site has no electricity

158 points · 154 comments · Betelbuddy

peri-cl · 1790334571 · focus · HN ↗
I'm very curious what happens now to the several gigawatts of fuel cells, that this project supposedly purchased to supply power.
> "Oracle signed a deal with solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) developer Bloom last year for 1.8GW of power, expanding it to 2.8GW of capacity in April."
<a href="https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/new-mexico-regulators-reject-natural-gas-pipeline-for-oracles-25gw-project-jupiter-data-center/" rel="nofollow">https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/new-mexico-regula...
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_Energy" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_Energy
I was surprised to read we're already building fuel cell power plants on this scale (this is a first of its kind project—by far this startup's largest customer). I didn't realize the tech was that mature. Now I'm left wondering if they actually ever intended to, or whether this was some kind of circular financial-engineering vaporware.
1. mynti · 1790339250 · focus · HN ↗
  The tech has always been mature enough but simply too expensive. But since combustion engines are sold out for the next years, data centers are rushing to get anything they can. So the extra millions for power generation will be a rounding error
  1. dfedbeef · 1790346543 · focus · HN ↗
    I would think someone would have run those numbers first.
    lazide · 1790351287 · focus · HN ↗
    No time to think, go go go.
    MengerSponge · 1790351295 · focus · HN ↗
    You would think, right?
    augment_me · 1790354697 · focus · HN ↗
    If the numbers dont add up it's fucked anyways who cares just send it
    Also worst comes to worst government will have to bail them out to not cause massive unrest
    red-iron-pine · 1790358662 · focus · HN ↗
    someone did, determined it would make them look bad, and pawned the assignment off to a junior executive to take the blame.
    if it works then they delegated successfully and the project is winning and if not then they blame the neophyte VP and walk away with another quarterly bonus anyway.

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