A massive new gas plant in Texas will be built with much less efficient technology than regular gas plants. It’s far from the only data center power project to rely on dirty turbines.
The Real Reason Data Center Gas Power Plants Are So Dirty
https://www.wired.com/story/real-reason-data-center-gas-power-plants-are-so-dirty/
6 Comments
Successful_Try543@feddit.org · 17 pts · 17d
TLDR; They're building 'simple cycle' turbine plants, i.e. the sole power for generating electricity is produced by gas turbines only.
Today, combined cycle plants are state of the art, where the exhaust heat of the gas turbine is used in a second cycle in generating steam for steam turbines that again power generators.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 17d
"Net Zero by 2040" is actually a fairly realistic goal since the AI bubble will burst WAY before then.
Birch@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 17d
Can't have combined cycle, need that water to cool the datacenters 🤦♂️
Jiggle_Physics@quokk.au · 5 pts · 17d
Meanwhile, although this is going on there, China is massively funding every renewable tech possible to be built to turn over their reliance on fossil fuels as quickly as possible. Making the Earth better, gaining robust energy independence, and moving things on from the 20th century.
Womble@piefed.world · 8 pts · 17d
Don't glaze China too hard. They also built >80% of the coal power built last year
Jiggle_Physics@quokk.au · 2 pts · 17d
Correct, but these are also built to be turned off as soon as their growing renewable grid can handle peak power in the most densely populated regions. They specifically use coal because that is abundant to China, and within it's plan for independence as well, and grants them a lot of security again foreign influences.
They are trying really hard to bring fission power into this, but their Houlong and Linlong plants are just to cumbersome to build quickly, and they are working on a network of smaller fast neutron, and thorium reactors, which they can sustain easily without foreign supply chains.