Utah data center will generate and consume more power than state, nears approval

explodes 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Powered 100% by natural gas, which, as a reminder, releases carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides.

> On Wednesday, Morris said that “one hundred percent of the power will be generated off the Ruby Pipeline,” while explaining the project to the county commissioners

How can burning that much natural gas to power it be worth the downstream health problems? The emissions from this sole power source at this scale is irresponsible. The idea is worse when you consider:

- Salt Lake City air already contains enough pollutants from the nearby oil refineries, mining, and cars

- Utah is building out a massive inland port nearby

- The Great Salt Lake is drying up, and expected to put toxic dust in the air, unless massive restoration efforts are undertaken

- Due to its shape, the Salt Lake Valley is a pit for poisonous air, exacerbated by "the inversion" weather patterns

Burning enough natural gas to outclass the entire state's power production is absolutely insane. They should be required, at a minimum, to utilize some amount of green energy for this monstrosity.

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ryankshaw 12 hours ago | parent [-]

Would exhaust from site of the proposed power plant / data center flow to the Weber/Davis/Salt Lake Wasatch front areas that have the bad inversions?

Or is this far enough north and out of the way enough that it would not necessarily contribute to winter air inversion pollution?

I know that generating that much co2 in and of itself is bad. But I'm just trying to confirm if the concern of it adding substantially to inversion air quality is also valid

	▲	explodes 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Valid. I certainly do not know myself. We will have to wait for the environmental impact study, or just wait for the real-world effects.

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mbrumlow 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And?

I why do we keep posting headlines like this. It’s not if the data center is going to take the power away from other people.

The metric of “more than X” in this case seems useless and sensational.

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Jimmc414 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Even if you don’t care about the environmental angle, a single data center exceeding a state’s entire electricity draw is a notable story on several levels.

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gus_massa 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Here in Argentina we have a huge aluminum mill, they essentially have their own huge dam+hydraulic power plant. So I agree.

	▲	explodes 15 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The critical difference is that this will be 100% powered by natural gas, not a dam and hydraulics system. Natural gas releases CO2 and nitrogen oxides which will exacerbate the Salt Lake valley's smog problems.

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jocelyner 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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