Where I live, you pay a higher rate for electricity as your usage hits various thresholds. Such a system could force data centers to pay more for their insane usage while sparing citizens from financing their projects. it might work to keep data centers from your neighborhood, too.
👍👍
Nice thought, but the companies building data centres are in league with private electricity providers, or have bought out politicians controlling public utilities. It’s the American way.
If they have enough money for robots that don’t contribute to society (or make a profit), they have enough money to put solar panels on top of their buildings
Unfortunately, that's usually only on the household user. Giant energy users like data centers, hospitals, big industry, etc. get volume discounts. In a lot of rural areas, that usually means the school, the grocery store, and factory/manufacturing plants.
I agree with you, by the way. Just pointing out we have a long way to go. And I echo comments that this issue will drive dirty energy production and pollution to places where poor people tend to live.
Prepare for the cap & trade bs to soon apply to data centers.
That just makes too much sense. Cmon now…
I am afraid it will not. Data centers are willing to pay far higher prices than people. But taking the fight to state utility commissions and state governments is where it is at. They can change the way the cost of new infrastructure drive by iAI data centers is paid for.
Podcast Catalyst has episodes full of info on the space.
www.carbon-direct.com/insights/who...
They often use a TREMENDOUS amount of water too.
Right. And you know what needs data centers? Posting on social media. Like you just did. Sort of strange to post to social media complaining about energy and materials usage of data centers. Whatever phone or computer you posted from used a lot of energy to be created and takes plenty to use.
Compared to AI the resources required for social media are trivial.
You can generate an image with a home PC or even some phones with the amount of energy it takes to open a game and get to the main menu before starting. Frontier labs are more efficient, not less.
Maybe this will help you understand the scope: www.iea.org/reports/ener...
New technology takes energy to create. Yes. Now compare to the total energy and material cost for building and using computers globally, cars, cell phones, and even using AI to generate an image vs creating the same digital art by hand.
I believe this is fairly common, but data centers are usually exempted from such ratings and get sweetheart deals, or straight up subsidies.
It would encourage data centers to build with solar/battery to completely or partially offset their power demand.
The exemptions are built in along with the tax breaks and financing. Residential users do and will supplement them. They have the $$$ to lobby to keep that arrangement.
Good one!!
I worry that it would just funnel the centers into parts of the grid that are filled with impoverished people under ultra-conservative rule. Industrial gentrification, if you will.
We help, at least, to pay for data centers.
That might hit clients that we actually care about but use a lot of electricity. Hospitals for example, are very energy intensive. Better to simply say that if you are building a data center then you must also build renewable power in the same location covering 150% of your expected power needs.
I like it! It's like telling a developer he has to pay for road improvements if he wants to build his shopping mall in town.
Sadly the data centers will simply move to places like Texas where Xcel will then surcharge states like MN to supplement (see also: arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...) "asked Minnesota’s utility commission for permission to add a surcharge to customers’ bills"
Spot on
Data centers should be required to operate on 100% green energy.
Developers should be required to pay for all infrastructure improvements necessary to facilitate their projects. I like the idea of use thresholds. I also think for-profit entities could pay a higher rate. That would spare hospitals (non-profit), schools, libraries etc.
I live in Ashburn, VA. It’s too late for us.
They'd actually charge poor people an outrageous amount after they use a miniscule amount and have an unlimited tier that all the major companies qualify for because that's just how it works in the US.
Makes perfect sense. Since the utility companies can’t pinpoint the marginal user that requires investment in new capacity, charging significantly more for very high volume users acknowledges they are likely the culprits and should absorb the cost.
Data centers should pay their own electric bills!! Why should we pay? They are the ones who use so much!
As long as all electric households aren't punished .. we have a ground source heat pump .. highly efficient but all electric. But yes citizens should not have to pay for the sins of data centers and crypto mining ..