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Improper redaction reveals Google Data Center water and electricity usage

356 points · 458 comments · sensanaty

  1. aliasxneo · · focus · HN ↗
    I lived in a smaller rural town near a Google datacenter. During my career there I had routinely come across some outlandish accusations made about our water/power usage from the locals. But for obvious reasons I could never dispute them. I remember we hired a local who'd grown up in the town and he was "really surprised" when he started to see what we were doing to remain efficient.

    The current data center craze just feels like the same thing but on a bigger scale.

    1. pj_mukh · · focus · HN ↗
      Along those lines just a reminder folks, China is installing about 1GW equivalent of Solar power per day [1]. Lot of Australians can simply stop paying for power now due to free power on offer and batteries [2]. These are not zero-regulation, socialist wastelands.

      All this whinging about "is this project using too much power or not" is pointless scarcity that we've chosen to partake in. If we are to create and spend political capital via hyper-focussing on a single issue, perhaps we should use it to fix this instead?

      [1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;reneweconomy.com.au&#x2F;just-staggering-china-installs-100-solar-panels-a-second-as-total-pv-capacity-tops-1-terawatt&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;reneweconomy.com.au&#x2F;just-staggering-china-installs-1...

      [2]:<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.energy.gov.au&#x2F;rebates&#x2F;solar-sharer-offer" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.energy.gov.au&#x2F;rebates&#x2F;solar-sharer-offer

      1. wredcoll · · focus · HN ↗
        Hmmm, which political party is famously against solar and renewables in general?
        1. pj_mukh · · focus · HN ↗
          The same one that is paying for their support for data centers and is shifting as a response [1]. Like I said, if political capital is being spent shifting peoples&#x27; stances, how much of a waste is it to know we could move them on this and we chose not to. Generational fumble.

          [1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;thehill.com&#x2F;homenews&#x2F;senate&#x2F;6121776-gop-worried-data-center-midterms&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;thehill.com&#x2F;homenews&#x2F;senate&#x2F;6121776-gop-worried-data...

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