Maybe all that's still not going to cover you in all cases, but...I'm not anti-nuclear by any means, but my understanding is that the upfront costs are very high and take a long time to recoup even in the best of cases. If it's only used as a backup for when cheaper renewable energy can't be generated or bought I'm not sure if the economics will ever work out anymore.
They're still expanding hydro in China because they can tell 2 million people to take a hike and there is nothing they can do about it. I remember reading about how the Glen Canyon dam was going to silt up in 40 years or so back in 1990 and... it did!
A real price for solar energy when you consider batteries for overnight/Dunkelflaut and overbuilding for winter could be 2-3x what people are quoting now... Right about in AP1000 territory.
And yeah, what will really happen is that energy markets will be built around the need of gas turbine peakers who will wind up making almost all the profit in electricity generation even if they are only making 1% of it. By 2050 renewables might be seen as a failed technology the way nuclear was circa 1990, but it might not matter much because India will have a heat event that causes a few million mass causalities and they might decide to use their nuclear weapons to put an end to the fossil fuel age.
As a result, electricity prices set a new record. At peak my price per kw/h was 22 times higher than it was in the summer. Twenty two times.
I am all in for state controlled power plants and for the nationalisation of energy companies. What I an against is for the government to give money away to privately held energy companies.
People really, really hate datacenters.
In any case, most of us would rather have one beating than six, but that doesn't mean we want one beating.
There's a reason lots of data centers are built around airports (already noisy) or in places that can't support other types of development for some reason.
Many local governments have failed in their responsibility to constituents in approving placement of DCs that should or could have better local projects like housing or retail.
Do you have another argument that doesn't rely on trickle-down economics?
You would never build residential development at the threshold of an airport for obvious reasons. So the remaining options are either leave the land undeveloped and get nothing, or build something that doesn't need quiet to generate tax revenue.
I'm not advocating for or against specific tax agreements because that is between the company and local government, who represent the people.
You can tell them as much as you want how safe nuclear power is. You may even be right. But after Fukushima, and Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl, they don't believe you that it will reliably stay safe forever.
Jobs in places where there usually aren't any. Some of these places are nearly dead or dying towns/communities and they're getting a huge jolt of new economic activity. Once the data centers are built there will be a steady base of new workers/jobs to maintain them.
DCs need some guards, some highly trained technicians, and that's mostly it, right? maybe 20-30 jobs per? That's not exactly opening up a new major employer like a factory or steel mill.
If you're facing local protests, my suggestion is offer to fund their schools for 5 years with a bond or something like that. Put the company name on a new power plant. It won't take up most of the cost of building and it'll probably get town hall to approve the zoning for you.
Do they even need the technicians on full time? I feel like those are flown out if something is wrong and otherwise can just monitor remotely?
I'm sure they pull in from outside the area for large jobs like major equipment refreshes or major network changes. But for day to day stuff (and there's always day to day stuff), it's just a couple people. Some days, they're very busy and my lowpri tickets take a long time to get worked, other days my tickets get completed in minutes.
They aren't building steel mills or factories in too many places these days - why do people keep comparing these to data centers as if it's even an option?
This is the incorrect analysis because it is not what is happening. If you can understand this, you can start to understand the resistance. Data centers are a tangible proxy to Ai and the Oligarchy. They look like the globalization, financialization, and deregulation that wrecked the economies they had prior - on steroids.
my understanding is that there are cases where it is not as bad, but by and large - and through history - this has not been the case, outcomes are very situational
This is numerically simple. How much money do these data centers return to the local community and how much do they cost the local community. It’s a catastrophic net-negative for all parties except the owner and the construction crew.
Source? We live in America and, except for some areas like the southwest, there are reservoirs everywhere with loads of water.
A lot:
> Data center revenue has also enabled the Board of Supervisors to fund the needs of Loudoun County Public Schools, including funding budget increases for the schools amounting to tens of millions of dollars year-over-year. This revenue source has also enabled Loudoun County to meet the public safety needs of the community, funding resources for the Sheriff’s Office and Loudoun County Fire and Rescue. Revenue from data centers has also funded many programs and services provided by Loudoun County to the community, including libraries, parks, recreation and community centers, and critical services in the areas of child protection and mental health. The Board of Supervisors has also funded capital improvements, such as schools, roads, bridges, and a broad range of facilities. All of these expenditures were made possible while simultaneously lowering the real property tax rate for homeowners.
I remember earlier this year somebody posted the results of a large survey that concluded most people would rather have a nuclear power plant in their backyard than a data center. Of course everybody would rather have nuclear power plant in their backyard because then they get cheap, clean, reliable electricity. They get nothing from the data center except competition for basic utilities.
I also remember how the person couldn't believe the results and found them astonishing. WTF. This just reinforced for me how so many people in technology are either narcissistic, short sighted (exceptionally naive), or have some sort of qualified mental health defect.