Paris MarxJul 24, 2024

Data centers now consume 21% of all the electricity in Ireland, more than all the homes in its cities and towns combined. Cloud providers still want more.

This drive for ever-increasing computation serves no one but the bottom lines of major tech companies. It must be stopped.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/23/ireland-datacentres-overtake-electricity-use-of-all-homes-combined-figures-show

#tech #ai #datacenters #ireland #energy

Ireland’s datacentres overtake electricity use of all urban homes combined

Statistics raise concerns that rise in demand for data processing driven by AI could derail climate targets

The Guardian
Show threadKevin LydaJul 28, 2024

@parismarx Sigh. I live in Ireland and the datacentre hate is largely due to government seeking to blame others for their crap job running the country.

Transitioning from burning shit to an all-electric energy future, will reduce energy usage by over half but will triple electricity usage. We need to build out our grid and money from datacentres can help.

That means off and on shore wind; residential, commercial and agrisolar; and storage.

Show threadAnders Eknert

@lyda @parismarx > We need to build out our grid and money from datacentres can help.

How much money is that? I thought they built them there mainly to avoid taxes.

Aug 3, 2024 at 10:55amWeb
Show threadacute_distressAug 3, 2024
@anderseknert @lyda @parismarx I presume the data centers buy stuff like electricity and pay land tax etc.
Show threadKevin LydaAug 3, 2024
@anderseknert @parismarx There are a lot of reasons to build datacentres in Ireland besides taxes - which are now largely in line with the rest of Europe. Climate makes DC cooling rather cheap. Network topologically it's a good point between the EU and the US. If Ireland does sort out its grid, electricity should be cheap.
Show threadKevin LydaAug 3, 2024
@anderseknert @parismarx They pay for electricity - and will obviously lobby for policies to reduce those costs - in other words lobby for more solar and wind turbines on the grid. They pay salaries, land taxes and yes, even corporate taxes. All that can help make the grid more efficient/sustainable.
Show threadAnders EknertAug 3, 2024
@lyda @parismarx sure, but do you have any actual numbers to do that math? Here in Sweden Facebook promised thousands of jobs and a fuckton of good things to benefit the local community if they’d be allowed to build a data center in the north of the country. So they got the contract. A few years later it turns out they have 30 people employed there, and they’ve done fuck all to support the local community.
Show threadKevin LydaAug 4, 2024

@anderseknert @parismarx a data centre doesn't supply a lot of jobs to run them. Quite a few to build them and in fields needed for the energy transition - HVAC, plumbing, electrical. So it's a way to increase people in those fields.

In terms of funding, the main tax revenue would come from energy and land use.