@SometimesLovely Very, very difficult to store it with any efficiency. And usually these data centers are a good distance from communities because their noise and air pollution is horrible.

@chris however bad the paper is, I don't really buy Mr Masley's dismissal. Urban heat Islands are real. Hell, even suburban neighborhoods with huge houses running their 24hr A/C make their local environment warmer - the heat moved from inside to outside HAS to change the outside temp. Data centers have to handle massive 24/7/365 cooling loads for servers. Adding acres of parking lots and buildings with flat, dark roofs.. That's all the sunlight which panels would convert to useful energy, turned into waste heat instead. Where TF does he think that goes?