AI needs so much power that old coal plants are sticking around

Re:AI needs so much power that old coal plants are sticking ... by jijijijij on Monday February 12, 2024 @06:31PM (#39352071)

You could, you know, use the heat of the nuclear power plant directly instead.

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Re:AI needs so much power that old coal plants are sticking ... by lm28469 on Monday February 12, 2024 @06:45PM (#39352229)

Then you lose the part where you get free computational power

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Re:AI needs so much power that old coal plants are sticking ... by alberto180 on Monday February 12, 2024 @07:34PM (#39352675)

You know what these huge towers with white smoke at nuclear plants do?

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Re:AI needs so much power that old coal plants are sticking ... by lm28469 on Tuesday February 13, 2024 @04:45AM (#39356091)

Yes they waste heat by releasing it in the atmosphere as water vapor. They neither power computers nor heats home

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Re:AI needs so much power that old coal plants are sticking ... by kalleboo on Monday February 12, 2024 @11:23PM (#39354378)

Nuclear plants only have about a 15 degree C temperature gradient in their cooling water in winter, the waste heat is not very useful. Swedish power companies have extensively researched using their nuke plants for district heating since they were planning the plants originally in the 60's, but it's never penciled out.

Meanwhile you can run a CPU up to 95 C.

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Re:AI needs so much power that old coal plants are sticking ... by jijijijij on Tuesday February 13, 2024 @07:15AM (#39356932)

Who is talking about waste heat? If you want to heat homes you could just use the thermal energy produced directly at a much higher efficiency. You don't need the detour of electricity generation at all.

See, my point isn't really that you should do that, but the fallacy in thinking there is a "free" energy hack for crypto, AI, ... . Wasting electrical energy is always bad.

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