Allowing unbridled data centers will absolutely explode retail electricity prices for normal Americans ... and rather obviously the energy to power these data centers must come from somewhere, and right now fossil fuels are the main source, which just compounds global warming. Perhaps politicians should stop taking bribes and demand that all these data centers be energized by 100% solar and wind ? Zuck chose Louisiana, a fossil fuel rich state that is well known for bribery and located his data center in a poor rural area.
The obvious solution here (besides, like you say, requiring datacenter electricity to be from 100% renewable sources) is to just charge datacenters more for electricity, such that they offset their impact on demand. That's exactly what my state's energy company (NV Energy) has been trying to do with so-called “large-load electrical service agreements” (LLESAs).
Allowing unbridled data centers will absolutely explode retail electricity prices for normal Americans ... and rather obviously the energy to power these data centers must come from somewhere, and right now fossil fuels are the main source, which just compounds global warming. Perhaps politicians should stop taking bribes and demand that all these data centers be energized by 100% solar and wind ? Zuck chose Louisiana, a fossil fuel rich state that is well known for bribery and located his data center in a poor rural area.
The obvious solution here (besides, like you say, requiring datacenter electricity to be from 100% renewable sources) is to just charge datacenters more for electricity, such that they offset their impact on demand. That's exactly what my state's energy company (NV Energy) has been trying to do with so-called “large-load electrical service agreements” (LLESAs).
Someone reincarnated Wesley Crusher as a political commentator? How utterly bizarre.
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Ok, well what about blowing up datacenters?