How Much Energy Do AI Data Centers Suck Up? Enough to Restart Three Mile Island For

AP Photo/Paul Vathis, File

Ah, THE FUTURE!

It is weirdly starting to look like the past, no?

While the Green grifters are busy making sure people's lives get less comfortable and more expensive every day, as the things that once made a "standard of living" worth attaining are stripped away piece by piece...

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...some of the wealthiest in the EAT THE BUGS crowd have the wherewithal to take a different approach by virtue of their place in the economic food chain - at the pinnacle.

Not relegated to gluing themselves to the floors of Porsche showrooms or flinging tomato soup at old masterpieces, these are the big thinkers, the entrepreneurs, the exceptional who provide the funds to keep the agitating storm troops noisy and occupied while they go about the real business of enforcing the change they want imposed on the world's population.

Sometimes, they meet resistance, like, say, with substituting bugs for burgers.

Not happening.

In other cases, they get pretty far along implementing their agenda until suddenly they meet a stubborn wall of angry citizens. A majority feel abused and betrayed by what were obviously ill-thought-out schemes to serve a questionable premise. Take EV and heat pump mandates and "renewable energy sources" for "cheap" electricity generation. None of these proved true and made a once comfortable life difficult and generally miserable.

Sometimes, though, their New World Order/WEF plans just happen to conflict with the fervor of their ardent, spittle-flecked supporters and reconcile with the real-life needs of the knuckle-dragging classes.

This is one of those amazing moments.

Bill "Eat the Bugs/Solar Geoengineering" Gates - Microsft founder, gazillionaire, and obsessive climate cultist in every aspect of control, from the atmosphere to what people are allowed to ingest - sees artificial intelligence (AI) as the next big thing. He has his Microsoft dudes heavily into planning AI data centers to develop and promote the technology in all its forms and uses.

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The thing about AI is that it requires tremendous amounts of energy to run the equipment in just one data center, less mind the multitudes he and other creatives like Elon Musk envision.

With states slavishly embracing the Green fantasy of relying on renewables with natural gas, coal, and nuclear being prematurely phased out sans replacement generation coming online, leading to aging grids now browning out in what used to be routine circumstances, where is that additional power to come from?

In Elon's case, a controversial ad hoc arrangement for his xAI data center outside of Memphis - natural gas generators until someone can cough up enough juice. The local utility is no way able to come even close at the moment.

As you can imagine, so, yeah, Memphis wants the jobs, but heads are 'sploding over the power issue and the "dirty" turbines he's making up the shortage with.

...For instance, there’s a major divide between how much electricity xAI wants to use, and how much MLGW can provide. In August, the utility company said that xAI would have access to 50 megawatts of power. But xAI wants to use triple that amount—which, for comparison, is enough energy to power 80,000 households

MLGW said in a statement to TIME that xAI is paying for the technical upgrades that enable them to double their power usage—and that in order for the company to reach the full 150 megawatts, there will need to be $1.7 million in improvements to a transmission line. “There will be no impact to the reliability of availability of power to other customers from this electric load,” the company wrote. They also added that xAI would be required to reduce its electricity consumption during times of peak demand, and that any infrastructure improvement costs would not be borne by taxpayers.

In response to complaints about the lack of communication with council members, MLGW wrote: “xAI's request does not require approvals from the MLGW Board of Commissioners or City Council.” 

But community members worry whether Memphis’s utilities can handle such a large consumer of energy. In the past, the city’s power grid has been forced into rolling blackouts by ice storms and other severe weather events.

And Garcia, at the SELC, says that while xAI waits for more power to become available, they’ve turned to non-legal measures to sate their demand, by installing gas combustion turbines on the site that they are operating without a permit. Garcia says the SELC has observed the installation of 18 such turbines, which have the capacity to emit 130 tons of harmful nitrogen oxides per year. The SELC and community groups sent a letter to the Shelby County Health Department demanding their removal—but the health department responded by claiming the turbines were out of their authority, and referred them to the EPA. The EPA told NPR that it was “looking into the matter.” A representative for xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Gates, on the other hand, had already been moving in a different direction - nuclear. In 2008, he helped found a nuclear energy company called TerraPower, and this past June, they broke ground in Kemmerer, Wyoming, on the company's first power plant.

...The demonstration plant will be home to TerraPower’s Natrium nuclear reactor, which is cooled with liquid sodium as opposed to water and features a molten salt-based energy storage system, all of which makes for a safer, cheaper and more efficient energy machine that can be built for around half the cost of a water-cooled reactor.


The reactor produces 345 megawatts and can have its output boosted to 500 megawatts for more than five-and-a-half hours if need be, which is the equivalent of the energy needed to power around 400,000 homes.

TerraPower has secured up to $2 billion in pledges from the U.S. government to complete work on the plant and nearly $1 billion in private funding, in addition to reaching a deal with Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation to explore the exportation of TerraPower’s Natrium reactors to the United Arab Emirates.

But if it all goes according to plan the WY reactor doesn't come online until 2030, and Gates has other AI centers in construction who will need power long before that.

What's the answer?

Use nearby available power generation resources that are sitting idle...and who cares why they shut down in the first place? Gates needs them now.

FIRE UP THOSE BIG, BEAUTIFUL TOWERS

Constellation Energy to restart Three Mile Island nuclear plant, sell the power to Microsoft for AI

Constellation Energy plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant and will sell the power to Microsoft, demonstrating the immense energy needs of the tech sector as they build out data centers to support artificial intelligence.

Constellation expects the Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island near Middletown, Pennsylvania, to come back online in 2028, subject to approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the company announced Friday. Constellation also plans to apply to extend the plant’s operations to at least 2054.

Constellation stock jumped about 15% in trading. Shares have more than doubled year to date.

Microsoft will purchase electricity from the plant in a 20-year agreement to match the energy its data centers consume with carbon-free power. Constellation described the agreement with Microsoft as the largest power purchase agreement that the nuclear plant operator has ever signed.

“The decision here is the most powerful symbol of the rebirth of nuclear power as a clean and reliable energy resource,” Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez told investors on a call Friday morning.

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Oh, I bet the neighbors go ape-Schlitz when they hear this.

And just so we're clear - reopening TMI won't benefit anyone BUT the Microsoft data centers. They are buying every last MW that burps out of that place at a rumored $100+KW

That's the power of mega-money, my friends.

As much as I despise Gates and everything his Davos crowd stands for, the one silver lining in this is the nascent resurgence of nuclear. This sort of thing is on a scale that we of the knuckle-dragging classes can't truly affect on our own. It takes a deal of this magnitude to kick the nuclear movement in the ass, get it going, and keep it rolling over the obstacles yet to come at it.

Even with Gates involved, all I can say is let it glow.

Maybe they'll eventually shine some of that rarified light on the rest of us.

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David Strom 7:20 PM | December 20, 2024
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