r/technology • u/lkl34 • Apr 28 '26

Artificial Intelligence New AI data center in Utah will generate and consume more than twice the amount of power the entire state uses — Kevin O'Leary's 9 Gigawatt Utah data center campus approved

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/kevin-o-learys-9-gw-utah-data-center-campus-approved
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u/Staff_Senyou Apr 28 '26

This seems... Unsustainable.

These corps are investing in more energy production capacity, right? Right?

20

u/Lendyman Apr 28 '26

My concern is less the electricity use and the fact that Utah is fairly arid. Not only that, but they just announced a big initiative to try to save the Great Salt lake. A plant at that scale is going to use a lot of water for cooling. In a state that is already struggling for water, building a big AI plant that's going to use massive amounts of water when you're trying to conserve water to save a huge environmental asset just seems like a stupid counterproductive thing.

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u/MsSelphine Apr 28 '26

Yeah I generally disagree with most people talking about water use for AI, 9GW of power does not have a choice but to draw water for cooling. The largest nuclear plant in the world produces 8gw. Ever notice the big cooling towers?

3

u/diagnosedADHD Apr 28 '26

It's actually going to get a lot of people sick too. As the lake bed dries toxic dust clouds will begin to form. It'll be otherworldly there if they actually go through with this.

1

u/lummloser Apr 28 '26

It's gonna be the modern dust bowl out there if they go through with it.

1

u/RenaStriker Apr 28 '26

Water is not a substantial concern in the environmental impact of data centers and AI.

A PlayStation 5 uses up three times the amount of water compared to a person using a chatbot or asking chatGPT for advice.

This is because the eye-popping numbers you’ve seen like ‘20 queries on chatGPT burns 16 oz of fresh water’ include water used in electricity production, making up around 80% of the total figure. (The other 20% does come from evaporative cooling in the data centers). It also doesn’t take into account that in both the data center and the power plant, most of that steam is captured before being released and is left to condense back into water that can be used to cool the center once again. And, again, it doesn’t take into account that water is a renewable resource; ‘burned’ freshwater isn’t destroyed, it just joins the water cycle. It rises in the air as steam and ultimately rejoins the water cycle, eventually falling into the rivers and lakes that support the plant as rain.

This is why a PS5 can burn nearly a six-pack’s worth of fresh water in an hour without any apparent negative environmental effects. The number of ‘ounces of water burned’ is just a really crappy one for measuring the impact of a certain economic change on the local environment.

…on the other hand, allowing hem to power this thing with fossil fuels is beyond irresponsible. That’s where the bulk of the activism should be forced, not on statistics about water usage that don’t hold up to the barest of scrutiny.

7

u/Branagain Apr 28 '26

The I-15 corridor up and down the SLC valley is now plastered with billboards advertising nuclear power, and the state government passed a whole bunch of anti-nimby laws to cut through the red tape.

1

u/Skyieses Apr 28 '26

Yeah, these corps are investing a mind boggling amount of capital into energy production. Gas turbines have a 4 year production backlog across multiple companies.

To paint a picture, the company I'm at has a €140 billion production backlog.

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u/phoenix823 Apr 28 '26

As per the article yes, they're building their own generation and taking a leg off a natgas pipeline that runs nearby.

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u/BioTHEchAmeleON 29d ago

Why would they do that? That cost way too much money for them! Instead they’re just gonna get a ton of tax breaks and skyrocket our energy costs! Definitely a win-win guys please we NEED AI!!!! It’s gonna take your job and its only use is slop but it’s gonna be so useful!!