cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/74351191
A proposed data center in northwestern Alberta could generate dozens of atomic bombs worth of heat every day.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/74351191
A proposed data center in northwestern Alberta could generate dozens of atomic bombs worth of heat every day.
This makes no sense tho. One sentence earlier, they say: “In all, the data center project will use about nine gigawatts of power using on-site natural gas generators per day, instead of drawing power from an energy grid”
You can’t just use 9GW of energy and produce 16 GW of waste heat. That would be a very severe violation of every law of physics I know.
I suspect that’s 9GW of usuable elctrical power.
Physics tells us no process is 100% efficient. If their gas powered generator is particularily innefficient, they might be burning 16 GW worth of gas to produce 9 GW of electricity, the 7 GW difference being mostly heat coming out of gas generators. The 9 GW of electricity would eventually turn into heat as well, which would come out of the processors and cooling systems