AkaSci 🛰️

After a short delay of the vote last week, county commissioners approved the gargantuan Stratos AI data-center in Utah.

~40,000 acres, 9GW using gas from a nearby pipeline, plus water in a drought-stricken area.

Kevin O’Leary, the VC who appears on the TV show Shark Tank, claimed that most of the protesters don’t live locally and have been paid to object to the project.

That now seems to be the standard response from republicans and tech-bros.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/13/utah-approves-datacenter-backlash?
1/n

May 13 at 10:42pmWeb
Show threadAkaSci 🛰️May 13

In related news, NV Energy, the Nevada utility that has supplied the bulk of Lake Tahoe’s electricity for decades, will stop providing power after May 2027 - to meet the demand of ... AI data centers.

The ~50,000 residents of Lake Tahoe will be left without power, unless the local utility can find an alternate source by then, probably at some higher price.

https://fortune.com/2026/05/12/lake-tahoe-data-center-49000-residents-power-source/
2/n

Nearly 50,000 Lake Tahoe residents have to find a new power source after their energy source looks to redirect lines to data centers

Roughly 49,000 Lake Tahoe residents could lose 75% of their power after their energy provider said it's directing energy to neighboring data centers.

Fortune
Show threadMidgePhotoMay 14
@AkaSci
Less a public Utility than an agency holding the public to ransom.
Time for another system, I'd think.
Show threadGuillotine Jones, FlâneurMay 14
@AkaSci
Price gouging going exponentially up the capitalism scale in Nevada, as local utility threatens to cut off 50,000 customers to serve data centers instead.
Show threadkbalMay 13

"You people aren't even real locals, you had to take the bus to get here" says the billionaire who just flew in from Geneva on his private jet.

Seriously, who writes this stuff?

Show threadEwen Bell 📸May 13
@AkaSci

I can never understand this idea of "paid protestors", like who do they think are funding these imaginary armies? I guess for people who are accustomed to shelling out dollar bills to make problems go away, it's a natural assumption.

In other words, every accusation is a confession.
Show threadKevin LoneyMay 13
@AkaSci I was curious and did the math earlier, 1 terrajoule is the equivalent of ~.239kt of TNT which means that a 9GW datacenter uses ~11.6 Hiroshima’s worth of energy a day.
Show threadAkaSci 🛰️May 14
@easyas314159
!!
Let's do an estimate of the peak aggregate power (GW) that drives human brains across the world. 🤔
Show threadKevin LoneyMay 14

@AkaSci A good question I also want to know the answer to: the Human base metabolic rate is ~80W * a population of 8.3B / 775MW per Hiroshima per day works out to ~856/day. That's just a bit over 90% of a single Castle Bravo/day.

The base metabolic rate is the entire Human body at rest and I haven't been able to find a reliable source for the often cited number of 20W for the just the brain which does require quite a bit of supporting "infrastructure" to operate.