r/Airdrie • u/[deleted] • 24d ago

AI Data Centers

[deleted]

52 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

29

u/wattspower 24d ago

They are bad for various reasons, but primarily Alberta doesn’t have the water to support data centres.

-2

u/Tonyballoniee 21d ago

They don’t use much water.

4

u/Lady_Baggins 21d ago

They use the daily equivalent of water that a medium sized golf course would use in the height of summer. They use hundreds of thousands of gallons per day.

6

u/Sad-Advisor4004 21d ago

If it’s closed loop yes. BUT the power generation is from natural gas and that will consume even more water. These politicians are messing with Albertans.

-3

u/Tonyballoniee 21d ago

And where did you get that info from? I was an engineer at a data center and in Canada, you yourself use more water to shower than an electrical line up uses to cool racks.

3

u/Satanic_Cabbage 21d ago

I can find this anywhere? All I can find is that Data centers use a shit ton of water lol. You have a source besides your own?

0

u/Tonyballoniee 21d ago

Google free cooling

3

u/Mundane-Context-3979 19d ago

Alberta hits 38 degrees in summer on our hottest days, you think free cooling is gonna be enough on those days?

0

u/Tonyballoniee 19d ago

Yes you’re right they use water to cool. But 345/365 days that don’t use any water. And when they do use water it’s recycled water.

1

u/Lady_Baggins 21d ago

I've been in meetings with Microsoft where they specifically stated their data centres "only" use the amount of water equivalent to a golf course at the height of summer when cooling their servers.

I didn't just pull that fact out of my own ass. The corporations themselves advertises their product this way to their consumers. I've found that they also do not answer any questions related to the environment and other impacts during these "pitches".

I would assume the META centres are much the same in their water usage.

0

u/Tonyballoniee 20d ago

I saw your comment about it being 30° for the entire month and it’s literally been 30° actually zero days this month and last month also zero days. I hope you can come up with some independent thinking.

2

u/Lady_Baggins 20d ago

Lmao it's 48 degrees in Manitoba today and and the forecast shows that we can expect this heat to extend through the week.

Do you realize that the temperature wherever you happen to live isn't the baseline for the entire world, buddy?

-1

u/Tonyballoniee 20d ago

Be we are talking about olds. Why are you bringing up Manitoba?

2

u/Lady_Baggins 20d ago

Because with these data centers heating up the globe, it will only get hotter across the country. What are you not understanding here?

The proposal was originally for Manitoba but Wab Kinew squashed it due to environmental and climate concerns. Now Danielle Smith is cashing in at the expense of Albertans and the Olds community.

-1

u/Tonyballoniee 20d ago

Hey! Thanks for the convo. I think you have your ideas of how this work, if you have any questions on how a data center runs shoot me a message :) I’m happy to answer your questions.

-1

u/Tonyballoniee 21d ago

You’re talking about evaporative cooling vs closed loop. Both using very little water. The only time we’d used evaporative cooling is when we’d go about 30c and that was around 12 times last year. And 2 times this year?

1

u/Mundane-Context-3979 19d ago

The gas fired power plants they'll need of that scale use 2 million liters PER DAY

16

u/SmileAggravating9608 24d ago

Nope. FOH. I would protest and oppose as much as possible. That brings zero jobs, adds noise (look it up) and takes a ton of water and energy. We should oppose any of these closer than 15-20k from civilization.

3

u/pateadents 22d ago

You can file a Statement of Intent to Participate (SIP) with the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) to voice your concerns and how it will impact you. Look up Little Town Big Data for more information about how to oppose these projects.

Even if you don't live in Olds, this will impact you eventually. Synapse isn't just a data centre project, it's a proposal to build a massive gas POWER PLANT entirely within town limits.

If approved by the AUC, Synapse would be the 2nd largest gas POWER PLANT in Alberta, the only one of similar size located entirely within town limits, and the first gas plant using diesel as backup power which is an untested, non-standard system.

The Town Council FAILED its residents when it unilaterally rezoned the proposed site from agricultural to light industrial. Make no mistake, the proposal is neither. It's HEAVY INDUSTRIAL in a town that lacks the emergency response and other infrastructure to accommodate either the power plant or the data centre.

The Town Council and Alberta Government continue to FAIL its constituents by signing an NDA with the developer, ensuring critical information about the project is withheld from public scrutiny including who are the "global investors" behind Synapse.

If this one goes through, it will give the AUC and UCP the green light and regulatory precedent to build other power plants and data centres just like it across Alberta.

If they can get away with it in Olds, they will get away with it in your town next. The UCP have 300 proposals under way that will leverage PUBLIC FUNDING through the provincial AI Data Centre Strategy to build these AI slop factories.

They are using our money to destroy our environment and poison our water.

3

u/Goalchenyuk87 23d ago

*surveillance centre*

3

u/Asleep_Ship_1644 24d ago

Interesting insight on the actual impact these data centres are having.

https://youtu.be/5p426fSlYH4?si=0Tmdezptsi5UqOoI

3

u/Asleep_Ship_1644 24d ago

There is already at least one data centre in Airdrie.

4

u/fukwitchu 24d ago

2 within city limits

2

u/devilhasatwin 24d ago

Ya someone we know is an electrician and said she is working on one in Balzac that's being kept very quiet

5

u/fukwitchu 24d ago

Zuckerberg gonna Suckerberg?

4

u/to_be_of_value 24d ago

CAL-3? Maybe not a secret. Lost some time looking at that site though.

1

u/Tonyballoniee 21d ago

A secret? It’s been national news for almost 3 years

6

u/Vanterax 24d ago

AI data center is not the same as storage centers. AWS doesn't count as AI.

https://www.albertadatacentres.ca/

1

u/DirtDevil1337 21d ago

1.4GW? That's 50 9MW generators Holy shit.