109
50MW-plus data centers must bring their own electricity generation to avoid shutoffs
And the fossil fuel death-cultists who usurped the government are champing at the bit to let them have it in the most polluting way possible.
That aerial picture though. Imagine spending your life's savings into a house in a quiet neighbourhood with direct access to a nice nature waterfront walk and this monstrosity gets built almost in your backyard.
A bit of a guess but I think this is the data centre in the picture: https://maps.app.goo.gl/8MGY8u3cfdPEGDyC8?g_st=ac
Here it is in a zoning map with the data centre circled:
IP is zoning for an industrial park and GI is "General Industry: District for industrial uses that are incompatible with residential uses due to the prevalence of outdoor storage and emissions of noise and odor."
Sure, zoning changes but given the distribution and proximity to the airport and quarries it seems unlikely it's all amendments. This very wary engineer is literally begging people to read zoning maps and flood plain maps before buying a house.
Any politician who says they are for a data center moratorium. In other words, no new data centers. For a period of at least 10 years while we do an environmental economical and health study I’m voting for.
For the record, I tend to vote, pure democratic line. But if the Republicans came out in favor of this going against data centers. I’m sorry I’d be voting for them. And any politician who knocks on my door or any of their door knockers that they have out here I tell them that. I don’t want to vote for Republicans, but if they’re willing to shut down this madness about data centers in neighborhoods, Or anywhere near neighborhood. Or having private citizen, subsidize electrical power consumption for data centers. I’m voting for that politician.
Data center owners: “Diesel generators, it is!”
"Gas turbines, it is!"
"If I can burn it, it'll turn it."
That might be good for nuclear SMR manufacturers. If what you're being told is "you cannot run a high-electricity-load business and have reliable power from the grid---you need to find a large source of electricity near where you operate", someone who can deploy a shit-ton of off-the-shelf sustained power generation at a particular location might have themselves a market.
The US is yet to produce a deployed SMR. In Canada construction of our first started in 2025 and it's expected to come online in 2030, so probably after 2030. These timelines don't look amazing at all for deploying power for the needs of hyperscale datacenters.
It's the only thing that makes sense.
this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2026
109 points (100.0% liked)
News
38841 readers
1745 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.
Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.
7. No duplicate posts.
If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.
All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS