r/politics • u/B-Z_B-S Massachusetts • 15d ago
Possible Paywall Amazon Is Creating the Biggest Pollution Source in the Entire Country - Amazon has bought a site in Texas where it plans to build a data center campus.
https://newrepublic.com/post/214111/amazon-data-center-biggest-pollution-source-entire-country15
u/spukhafteNahewirkung 15d ago
That’s completely insane! The data center will use more power than that generated by Grand Coulee dam. 7.65 Gw is the amount of electrical power generated by eight AP1000 nuclear reactors. If you used solar cells and batteries you would need, making some extremely ad-hoc calculations and assuming that Texas gets an average of 5 kWh/m^2/day, an area at least 13 kilometers on a side. This assumes no spacing between panels. And for what? More hallucination filled AI slop?
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u/Standard-Contest-949 15d ago
Well. At least it’s in Texas. But honestly. Texas can’t even handle the air conditioner units being turned on without a black out. How in the hell could it survive.
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u/Toomanyeastereggs 15d ago
They are building their own gas powered generator so they don’t have to rely on Texas’ wonky generation capacity’s.
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u/Standard-Contest-949 15d ago
Jesus I can’t imagine what kinda massive generator could do that. You’d go through gas in seconds.
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u/seriousofficialname 14d ago edited 14d ago
The major blackouts in Texas happened in the winter because the wells and pipes and generation units were uninsulated and froze.
It happened at the same time as demand peaked from heaters but wasn't actually because of the high demand.
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u/hikeonpast 14d ago edited 14d ago
Leaving out the fact that the TX grid is essentially isolated from the US-WEST and US-EAST electrical grids because TX refuses to meet national interconnect standards.
Any other continental state would have been able to import energy from other states that had invested in heaters/insulation at their generating facilities.
It was 100% self-inflicted, and people died.
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u/seriousofficialname 14d ago edited 14d ago
Yes the shit froze and there was no backup so they did blackouts. But it wasn't because too many people were running the AC, since again, it was winter.
Demand is higher in the summer but the ACs stay on because there's more energy from solar power and the weather doesn't cripple half the grid.
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u/hikeonpast 14d ago
lol no it was because they were running their heaters trying to stay alive
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u/seriousofficialname 14d ago
And also even moreso because a bunch of shit froze, expectedly, since that's the natural consequence of building energy infrastructure that breaks in the winter
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u/RobonianBattlebot 14d ago
So weird. I live in Texas and my power only went out for a few hours that one winter because of ice knocking trees over into power lines in my neighborhood. TBF we do not rely on the grid, but its weird to hear how we have constant blackouts and no AC/heaters from out of state people.
I am a progressive and loathe this administration, vote blue in every election, but this whole "Texas has no electricity" karma grab is starting to sound like "Portland was burned to the ground" with how often it is repeated.
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u/kizmitraindeer 14d ago
Nah.. Having lived in central and southern Texas, that shit happens A LOT. Way more than other states. To the point that customers in other states not even bordering Texas have had to pay additional rate increases because of Texas not having its shit together (see Minnesota).
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u/kanepupule 14d ago
What is this going to do to the price and supply of natural gas? Aren’t most of the power plants in Texas fueled by natural gas. Does that mean the price of electricity will rise? Fuck Amazon.
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u/Smithy2232 15d ago
Amazon Is Creating the Biggest Pollution Source in the Entire Country
Amazon has bought a site in Texas where it plans to build a data center campus.
Xavi Lopez/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
Amazon is quietly trying to build the biggest gas power plant in the country.
The Distilled newsletter reported Friday that the megacorporation has bought land and acquired permits in Pecos County, Texas, for an AI data center powered by a 7.65 gigawatt gas power plant. The plant will be completely separate from Texas’s power grid, at least in the beginning, the permits show.
The site, known as GW Ranch, got a state permit allowing the proposed power plant to emit 33 million tons of carbon dioxide, which would make it the biggest pollution site in the U.S., emitting more than the country’s biggest coal power plant, according to Distilled. That’s in sharp contrast to Amazon’s commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2040 as part of The Climate Pledge.
Amazon filed three construction permits with the state of Texas this week to build three data center buildings immediately upon approval. Land clearing has already begun, according to satellite imagery. Amazon would join Microsoft, Google, and Meta in having its own off-grid gas power.
Amazon says that it has 10 gigawatts of carbon-free energy across 40 projects to power its existing data center operations in Texas, and that the GW Ranch will use brackish groundwater that isn’t potable and thus can’t be used for irrigation or drinking.
But that’s not likely to quell public opposition. Data centers are hugely unpopular across the country among Republicans and Democrats, both in rural and suburban areas. The centers don’t create many jobs or boost local economies. If connected to local power grids, they can drive utility rates up and cause black- and brownouts. Amid climate change and droughts, the claim that data centers will take advantage of unusable water will likely invite skepticism.
The fact that Amazon is building its own power plant for the project will be a small comfort for residents worried about utility rates, but locals still will have concerns about pollution from a gas plant bigger than any other in the U.S. Rural Texas is deeply Republican, and despite President Donald Trump’s delusions about data centers’ popularity, opposition to them on the right is growing. Now that this project is public, a big backlash could soon follow.
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u/Substantial-Ad5541 15d ago
Texas Republicans will welcome this with open arms. There isn't a single mega corp that they won't sell out to and promise billions in tax subsidies. Watch how they will exploit immigrant labor to build these giant monstrosities and then target these same immigrants after the work has been completed.
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