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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. stogot · · focus · HN ↗
        What about water usage?
        1. packetslave · · focus · HN ↗
          Funny how nobody asks the folks who build golf courses &quot;what about water usage?&quot;

          hint: An individual 18-hole course uses between 300,000 to 1 million gallons per day

          1. asymmetric · · focus · HN ↗
            I think people actually do though? They are even sabotaged at times (has happened in Europe at least), to protest against their water usage.
            1. lokar · · focus · HN ↗
              I’ve seen it brought up many times
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