Arizona city rejects data center after AI lobbying push

16 pointsposted 2 months ago
by ohjeez

10 Comments

karakoram

2 months ago

I did not know Arizona was a contender for AI Data Centers. Don't they have water and drought issues already?

ben_w

2 months ago

Probably, given it's famously a desert, but the water issues for DCs are a meme rather than the actual limiting factor even in Arizona's case.

Last time this came up in an HN discussion, I looked at the sources and noticed that all 108 DCs in Arizona combined currently use about as much water as about 3k residents: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45952965

How big is the rejected new DC compared to all the existing ones combined? I could believe just about anything in the current bubble, but that's where we're at for the existing ones.

cheald

2 months ago

It's already home to the largest nuclear power plant in the continental US (Palo Verde), and there are essentially no natural disasters to contend with.

toomuchtodo

2 months ago

Indeed, the Salt River Project nuclear generator uses reclaimed sewage water for cooling.

simianwords

2 months ago

Why do they want to open data centres in this area though? Seems like there might be better places. What's the incentive for this particular place?

nephihaha

2 months ago

How do we square "net zero" with energy-guzzling data centres?

simianwords

2 months ago

Is this what NIMBY means?

lotsoweiners

2 months ago

If so then call me a NIMBY. Not a Chandler but in Gilbert, the town next door. No need for data centers here or anywhere else around here either.

simianwords

2 months ago

where would you like them to be?