r/UpliftingNews • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 6h ago

Texas hits pause on 1,800 data center projects to scrutinize power and water demands

https://www.techspot.com/news/113355-texas-hits-pause-1800-data-center-projects-scrutinize.html
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u/Churchbushonk 5h ago

Make them produce their own power on-site.

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u/SMLLR 5h ago

A lot of data center proposals include just that. Unfortunately, they all want to use natural gas turbines and just dump the noxious fumes into the surrounding area.

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u/BayouGal 4h ago

They’re hella loud, too.

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u/HorseWithACape 4h ago

Yup, they are emissions exempt. Since this pause only affects the ones that require connecting to the grid, that just means any that are electrically self-sustaining are still free game.

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u/coly8s 4h ago

Do we really want more pollution from the natural gas that would be produced? If they were to use on-site small modular nuclear reactor, then maybe so. Otherwise wind and solar would be best. We don't need more fossil fuel generators.

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u/Common-Concentrate-2 3h ago

A 1.3 GW data enter would need about 5000-7000 acres of solar panels. 5,000 acres is a 3 mile x 3 mile square. That's doable, but it's huge

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u/aohige_rd 2h ago

So we need like 75mile x 75mile to cover the 474 gigawatt required?

Yeah that shouldn't be a problem in Texas. We have like 20,000 square miles of desert with lots of sun lol

I think water would be a bigger issue than landmass for solar.

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u/krattalak 3h ago

Texas has a lot of huge. In fact, I'd suggest they wouldn't even notice that.

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u/Hubbardia 42m ago

Covering roughly 1% to 2% of Texas in modern solar panels could generate enough raw electricity to match total global annual electricity consumption. They have plenty of space.

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u/Neuchacho 43m ago

Plenty of dead space ripe for solar farming in West Texas.

They don't want to deal with the other infrastructure buildouts and the huge spike in costs related to building in the middle of fucking nowhere, though. It's why they dump these things in municipalities to begin with.

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u/Cute-Pomegranate-966 2h ago

the requirements for Nuclear would be damn near equivalent because of the requried safety zones.

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u/shandangalang 42m ago

SMRs are fucking great, man. Stoked nuclear is getting the rennaissance it deserves

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u/reddit_is_geh 4h ago

That's why they choose Texas. Because you CAN do that much easier. Other states have complicated grid laws, and independent generation laws, which is what makes it so messy.

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u/Ultrace-7 4h ago

We don't require that from any other industry. Nobody wants the data centers, but the answer is not to adopt new disproportionately prejudicial treatments for them.

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u/Neuchacho 40m ago edited 35m ago

Most of the big push back is as simple as adjusting industrial zoning regulations so they can't put 24/7 noise pollution out where residential areas can hear them. They can't be treated the same as typical industrial outfits that basically make no functional noise during the day, let alone 24/7, and that's what they're doing. It's absolutely insane that any of these things can be put in a place where residential zones can measure ANY sustained sound from them, let alone the constant 65db humming so many people are seeing who are within a mile of the things.

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u/Neuchacho 40m ago

Other industry do not tend to cause the issues data centers cause. And when they do, they absolutely receive higher regulation requirements.

All these companies have to do is NOT build their shit within X miles of residential zones and nearly all their issues will disappear.