Energy infrastructure

That makes perfect sense to me.

Apply carbon figures at source or have I missed something here?

The government needs to ban any more data centres, with a particular focus on ones that are AI centric. This country will miss it's 2030 CO2 targets, and will cop large EU fines, just as things stand. The power requirements for AI are so large as to be out of the question for them to establish here, though they will likely try for the same cheap cooling reasons all the other data centres are here for. Let Denmark have them.

“If you were to integrate large language models, GPT-style models into
search engines, it’s going to cost five times as much environmentally as
standard search,” said Sarah Myers West, managing director of the AI
Now Institute, a research group focused on the social impacts of AI. At
current growth rates, some new AI servers could soon gobble up more than 85 terawatt hours of electricity each year, researchers have estimated — more than some small nations’ annual energy consumption.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/nuclear-power-oklo-sam-altman-ai-energy-rcna139094

Data centres employ feck all people and should be told to feck off. One of the objections to the proposed Apple DC in Athenry was based on how few permanent jobs would be created, touted as being 150, which is next to nothing for a beheamoth estimated to end up consuming 12% of the grid.

In 2015, the year Apple’s plans for Athenry were first announced, data
centres accounted for about 5 per cent of all electricity consumed in
Ireland. By the time the proposal was shelved in 2018, that consumption
rate increased to 8 per cent.

Last year, that rate had more than doubled to 18 per cent of all
electricity consumed in the Republic — about the same as all urban homes
in the State.

AI data centre power consumption is far higher than existing ones.

The headline is actually way off providing an inkling of the looming problem.

I'd say Ireland's reputation as stupid patsy is well and truly safe in the minds of those who site data centres.

There is one solution, though, if the planning permission required any prospective AI data centres to furnish their own zero CO2 power supply with no grid connection, then I wouldn't see a problem hosting them.

Interesting numbers I stumbled across from the EIA on new grid additions forecast/expected in 2024:

• solar PV 58%
• battery storage 23%
• Wind 13%
• natural gas 4%
• All others 2%

Yes it’s by capacity so adjust by capacity factors to get expected energy contribution. The “all others” category includes nuclear - yes after years of decades of nuclear contributing zero new capacity, the Vogtle reactors are finally coming on line after a bunch of company bankruptcies, nearly 10 years late, 20B over budget, etc. But with nothing seriously planned, it looks like these will be the last new nuclear ever added in the US.

The battery storage share growth is more dramatic than I expected - although inevitable given that it’s now considerably cheaper than open cycle natural gas. But like with wind, then solar, there are still people today shouting “it will never work!”.

Yes but it's still amazing to witness - I first heard claims (sometimes disputed) that the TCO for battery beat NG for peaking purposes about 3 years ago. I would have expected that the market would respond but not as quickly? For batteries to have completely wiped out investment in open-cycle NG within such a short time frame is really impressive. It's exciting watching a genuine technological revolution occurring in realtime.

I find battery prices ($ per kWh) a little opaque - I find it easier to think in terms of $/cycled kWh - LFP can expect up to 5000 cycles. So the round-trip cost of buying an off-peak kWh and selling during peak is less than 2c/kWh. This is a fraction of the production cost of any electricity currently being generated and so has the power to transform intermittent sources into demand following sources for very little money.

@bk - yes it looks like most of the US installed battery capacity is being done as a component of solar installation. This is surely a winning combination - grid-scale solar PV in the US can produce a kWh for under 10c a kWH TCO, adding 2c per kWh cost to store it intraday and you have the ability to offer rapid response demand following for under 12c per kWh. No wonder the solar/battery share of new generation investment is over 80%.

https://www.offalyindependent.ie/2024/04/30/midlands-data-centres-mooted-as-amazon-firm-joins-eco-energy-park/

An interesting development if it comes to pass. Makes sense to locate them near the infrastructure in Offaly. Plenty of wind farms in operation/ under construction / in planning. Plus the solar that’s planned and the biomass Edenderry Power station.

Large iron-air battery installation due to be submitted for planning in the NW in the coming weeks.

Would be one of the first of its kind in Europe iirc?

Just a flavour of how much land a bio-digester uses , plus how much concrete infrastructure, obviously there also a fertilizer, harvesting and storage energy component,as well as digestate storage and spreading ...

Yep - it has all the environmental merits of other Biofuel scams. Might as well go back to burning whale oil🙄

Bio-digesters where the main feed stock is grown specifically are a bit of a zero gain / subsidy farming game -

Not salwayso bad when the main feed stock is a "waste product ", so animal manures , slaughter house waste , food waste ect , but even then transport costs count a lot , and there still needs to a proportion of maize or grass or clover ect ,

The bigger the A/D plant the more efficiently it can be run , but the further the input (feed stock ),and the output (digestate) has to travel ,

Those waste products have to go somewhere, better bringing it to an A/D plant and gaining energy and fertiliser from it.

Would be worth checking the system demand curve for a daytime dip caused by mircogen solar on a clear day vs a bad day.