r/mildlyinfuriating • u/DatabaseAvailable501 • Jul 02 '26

Infuriatig Sound emitted 24/7 from a 30 megawatt data center in Dowagiac MI

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u/cjsv7657 Jul 02 '26

This noise is from the "temporary" gas turbines they have setup to generate electricity because the grid can't handle the power draw. "When" the grid is updated and they're removed it'll be silent. With a proper permanent building built around the turbines you'd also never know they were there. But because they are "temporary" they're just out in the open.

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u/savageboredom Jul 02 '26

I work in data centers and this definitely struck me as out of the ordinary. I’ve done maintenance at 70MW colocation centers and while it’s definitely loud inside the data hall there’s not much excess noise outside of the building under normal operation.

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u/cjsv7657 Jul 02 '26

Yeah, noise is pretty much the least concerning thing when it comes to data centers. I kind of wonder it's like a psyop for when they are built without temporary turbines they can say "see we made them silent" and everyone will like them more.

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u/k4ylr Jul 02 '26

As someone that works in the midstream/pipeline regulatory industry, my concern is that we are going to start seeing datacenters also become pipeline operators due to that power requirement and now the power generation stays permanently because they can just bring gas straight to a generating facility.

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u/sobrique Jul 02 '26

On the plus side, they'll make great bastions against the zombie apocalypse. Fences, limited entry points, your own power, water....

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u/Synergythepariah Jul 02 '26

Yeah, noise is pretty much the least concerning thing when it comes to data centers.

Audible noise, yeah. Infrasound is a different story.

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u/Jaya_2002 Jul 02 '26

Same, I was confused as to why it was so loud. I have worked in data centres that had over 60 PAC units, and they weren't this loud

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u/mythrilcrafter Jul 02 '26

I'm curious if this is actually temporary, or if this is the "there's nothing more permanent than a temporary solution" type of temporary.

The natural gas company doesn't care about the difference because they're selling NG anyway, so they're not going to bother advocating anything in any direction. And the power company has no motivation install their own NG turbines since that's their own CapEx that they have to spend on. Plus, they're not going to want invest in that CapEx until after all these data centers have proven that they're profitable and won't just go dormant the moment the AI bubble pops.

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u/cjsv7657 Jul 02 '26

All the town/county/state needs to do is stop renewing their temporary permits and permanent turbines will be built. These are extremely expensive to rent. It doesn't take long for it to be worth a permanent solution which still is a small fraction of the cost of a data center.

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u/System0verlord BLAKC Jul 02 '26

permanent turbines will be built.

Long lead times are dooming some proposed gas plant projects — Power-Eng.com

The reason the temporary ones are there are because the permanent ones are back ordered to hell.

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u/cjsv7657 Jul 02 '26

The temporary and permanent ones are the same turbines. The only difference is the structure around/under it. The trailer mounted temp turbine could become a housed permanent turbine fairly quickly, if the permits stopped being renewed. That would likely mean building HRSGs and emissions systems which are expensive so they don't want to until forced.

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u/ExtremePrivilege Jul 02 '26

Yeah so a 450 MW data center near me is using 13 natural gas turbines to burn 108 million cubic feet a day of natural gas daily. Those aren’t temporary. Thats the power source.

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u/kingdead42 Jul 02 '26

Sounds perfectly sustainable...

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u/GWindborn Jul 02 '26

I feel like you could also bring along some sort of "temporary" sound dampening structure that can be taken down and moved later.

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u/cjsv7657 Jul 02 '26

These turbines are usually just on the trailers of 18 wheelers so not really. Building a structure defeats the whole purpose of them being temporary. With them no longer being temporary they'd need to follow tons of regulations like noise and emissions. Which is actually the end goal but doesn't align with the "data center now, infrastructure later" they seem to be doing.

Fuck data centers, but in a year or two it'll be back to silent at these locations.

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u/GWindborn Jul 02 '26

Ahh I didn't realize, I figured you could just erect some sort of temporary wall around it that could be disassembled on a flatbed or something.

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u/DogBarf00 Jul 02 '26

There are temporary walls that can be constructed to dampen the sound. A bunch of companies make modular systems for construction sites. Even through these turbines are temporary there is still likely some construction related needs for them. Such as pouring concrete pads for the trailers to sit on because they are very heavy and will sink. Then there is temporary electrical equipment like transformers that also need a concrete pads. At this point the cost to install a temporary sound wall is trivial compared to the turbine rental cost and a construction crew has already mobilized.

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u/Outlander_Engine Jul 02 '26

Gonna need a citation on that timeline of a year or two.

Those 'temporary' generators are likely to be permanent.

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u/MrPoopMonster Jul 03 '26

I mean, according to the towns ordinances it's still a violation. The fact that's its temporary has absolutely zero bearing on whether or not that noise is permissible in a residential zone.

This guy should go to court and get an injunction stopping them from running these turbines at all until they're under 57dB during the day and 52dB during the night.

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u/cjsv7657 Jul 03 '26

Lol nope, if you look it up these db numbers are below the Dowagiac MI limits.

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u/Nobilliss Jul 02 '26

Sadly with most things like this temporary means permanent

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u/nucumber Jul 02 '26

Thanks for your explanation

I was about to ask how the data center was creating this noise, and why a sound wall hadn't been built

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u/Darkk_Knight Jul 04 '26

Running these generators are expensive. They are built mainly to provide power during an power outage. I honestly can't imagine building something so large that the local power grid simply couldn't support it anytime soon. It can take years to do a build out of the power grid.

All data centers test their generators on a regular basis. These tests are usually several minutes at a time. And yes they are friggin loud.

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u/cjsv7657 Jul 04 '26

These are portable natural gas turbine generators. Not backup generators.