https://electrek.co/2024/03/05/amazon-just-bought-a-100-nuclear-powered-data-center/
Nuclear isn’t everyone’s favorite source of net zero power, but this purchase makes so much sense for Amazon Web Services. There’s an enormous demand for what Amazon Web services provide, which takes energy.
Susquehanna Steam Electric Station is already online, and the data center campus is turnkey. Amazon moves in; it powers up on 100% clean energy.
+5
Data centre energy usage has been a ‘hot’ topic for a while. Several high profile companies have already moved their operations to cooler climes as cooling for the equipment takes a significant amount of energy.
https://www.theenergymix.com/microsoft-shifts-swedish-data-centre-from-diesel-to-batteries/
One of the other moves (like the battery option, above) is to use DC power rather than AC because the equipment runs off dc voltages anyway so there is already heat generated converting AC to DC.
There has been talk about using more DC feeds for various usage (including industrial, commercial and domestic usage) as many of the latest appliances actually work on DC. AC remains the main means of power transmission but DC feeds are a possibility in future energy systems
“Now Microsoft is going down the path of finding ways to do this for land datacenters,”
That solution is already here. and nuclear uses it all the time: Cooling Ponds
Some of the cooling/storage ponds at Sellafield are a size and depth that could easily take a couple of hundred of those canisters.
Much easier than messing about in big boats.
https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/342586/view/used-fuel-cooling-and-storage-pond-at-sellafield
+1
As long as they cleaned out all the nuclear waste first. :)
It’s not just the cooling, though: they were also attracted by the abundance of energy available from the sun, wind, tide and waves. I can see a few of those cylinders inside the trunk of a monopile offshore wind turbine, perhaps with some PV cells on the outside.
I’m thinking inland rather that offshore, not everyone is near a coastline.
I envisage a semi-desert environment with a solar farm for power generation and open air ponds being cooled by evaporation.
Of course you’d have to keep any sand etc. from blowing into the open ponds, and top up the evaporated water.
Or less desert and a mix of onshore wind and solar with enclosed ponds.
Cooling water running in and out from a nearby river?
That’s talking large scale like current data farms,
More distrubuted processing wouldn’t need the same scales of plant in one place, but there again having physical maintenance all at one site is easier than having to visit distributed equipment if/when something goes wrong.
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