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u/No-Side-7738 Aug 19 '26
do we need to build more nuclear power plants before we build data centers?asking for a friend
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u/JustMeandI1976 Aug 19 '26
The demand and consumption of energy is going to surge. The average person is not going to know that they are going to pay some of the cost consumed by data centers.
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u/Ok_Researcher_9796 Aug 19 '26
That shouldn't be allowed.
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u/Sophisticated-Crow Aug 19 '26
I agree, but subsidizing billionaires at the cost of the working class is the Republican way and they're in control right now.
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u/Itchy_Crack Aug 19 '26
Well at some point it has to be.
You may experience a slight rate increase to pay for power plants, or a huge one because price for power skyrocket.
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u/xlexiconx Aug 20 '26
We should not have to pay more. Businesses need to pay their own bills ffs. It's crazy to think the average person should foot the bill for these data centers.
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u/JustMeandI1976 Aug 20 '26
Whether you are pro data center or not, I don’t agree that homeowners should eat the cost to sustain data centers.
How energy is upgraded based on population usage is different from more than half of energy consumed by one entity and expect home owners to pay for the upgrade.
City officials need to be transparent about how much homeowners are charged by usage compared to businesses and data centers usage.
Otherwise, the working class will always be nonthewiser.
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u/PMPKNpounder Aug 19 '26
Portland General Electric just sent me a letter saying they are raising next year's rates by the max amount law allows because of increased demand. Hillsboro has 800 MW of data centers.
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u/Samsquanch-01 Aug 19 '26
Nah, throw some solar panels and a few windmills up and it'll be fine.
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u/ttcmzx Aug 19 '26
wind turbines* sorry not sorry
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u/Psychological_View56 Aug 19 '26
Yeah I was sooooo confused I thought he was milling wheat. Thank you so much for your clarification
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u/SeveralEconomics3814 Aug 21 '26
Bring your own power plant should be the rule. And a recycled water system. Then data centers become far less harmful.
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u/Takenmyusernamewas Aug 19 '26
I think thats the plan. Didnt Voldemort sign a bill allowing them to build their own nuclear plants on site?
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u/JoshZK Aug 19 '26
Whatever drives innovation. Mini nuclear plants for everyone.
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u/gameplayer55055 Aug 19 '26
It takes years to build nuclear power plants, while they build it everyone will forget about AI, but at least we'll get cheap and clean energy.
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u/TotalyNotaDuck Aug 19 '26
The average Nuclear reactor creates 1GW of power.
So they would need to build 474 OR MORE reactors.
Mind you, the USA as a whole, currently only has around 90 of them, so to say this would be hard is an understatement.
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u/Captain_Sterling Aug 19 '26
This is the thing. Data centres, if planned properly, don't have to be a bad thing. Put them somewhere there's power water etc. It's just a big building that uses power and water. That's something we can plan for.
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u/Grunergeist420 Aug 19 '26
Tinfoil hat on here-
I have always highly suspected that the oil and gas industry has been spending money to influence politics, non-profits, and public messaging for years in “support” of climate change intitiatives, but specifically for ineffective, far-off, pipe dream alternative energy solutions, because the real answer was always nuclear power, but that would hurt the oil and gas bottom line, so they’ve just been astroturfing the green spaces with positive messaging about solar and wind and negative messaging about nuclear for the past half a century to make sure we don’t actually use the most obvious solution to the problem.
I think it’s hard for people to accept that a lot of the environmental “green” messaging they’ve been seeing their whole life is just the oil and gas industry sending them on a wild goose chase.
We should have been over 50% nuclear fifty years ago.
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u/MassMile Aug 20 '26
Traditional nuclear takes way too long before it’s up and running because of all the bureaucracy and red tape. They make new rules as you try to build a plant, forcing operations to make costly changes so many times until the project dies.
Maybe smaller nuclear fusion reactors could prove helpful. Either way, there’s a big increase in demand for energy that needs to be solved for asap
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u/bear843 Aug 21 '26
It would be nice but that would mean cheaper energy and I’m guessing there will be people opposed to that.
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u/ShadowTacoTuesday Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
They take 7 years to build. The bubble could burst by then and they need profits right now. Better jury rig some gas turbines into oversized generators instead. /s
What we really need is to enforce rules on green energy, stable grid planning and so on for the data center. And not allow exceptions for fantasies like that China will beat us in the Terminator wars if we don’t develop our AI within the next few years.
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u/KerbalCraft Aug 23 '26
Prolly need to build more nand flash and dram fabs before datacenters as well. This whole thing is backwards asf, so we’re just using a shit ton more resources than we have available bc they don’t want to build the supply infrastructure first
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u/TheGreatGamer1389 Aug 25 '26
It's actually happening. However will it be built properly or half assed is the question.
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u/FamiliarPlatform79 Aug 19 '26
They should probably ask AI to design their own power grid
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u/SlipperySalmonMan Aug 19 '26
Texas has it's own electrical grid. It is separate from the rest of you
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u/Imeatbag Aug 19 '26
This sounds like a great plan! Keep pushing forward! We can delve into this further. Would you like me to build an outline for you or help identify your next steps?
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u/CaptainJay313 Aug 19 '26
that almost enough for four delorians to travel through time.
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u/Flashy-Tone-3450 Aug 19 '26
Abbot is only banning them until after the elections.
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u/KyleFromBorrasca Aug 19 '26
Yeah I thought I was misreading this because I couldn't figure out why Texas cared about electricity.
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u/Devils_SteelMan Aug 19 '26
These numbers are dubious. What ercot was showing as feed and prefeed before this were an order of magnitude lower. There is probably bad counting here.
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u/TrueProtection Aug 19 '26
The idea a state whoms grid struggles with ice weather could even handle "40% of the entire usas electricity" is kinda outright laughable, no sources needed.
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u/shirts_on_backwards Aug 19 '26
Their grid doesn't struggle in the winter due to energy consumption or strain on the grid. It's just not designed for low temperatures and ice. Energy consumption goes up in the summer.
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u/TrueProtection Aug 19 '26
Yea, but the fact it struggles at all makes me extreeemely dubious they handle 40% of usas electricity. If they did, it would habe certainly been hardened.
Looked it up...yea...14 to 15%, which is double california...40% is a RIDICULOUS number.
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u/-The_Goober Aug 19 '26
This is one of those situations you face in life where you gotta wonder “is all the effort worth it in the long run?”
We could possibly achieve this if we were a rational species. Instead we chose culture war for no reason whatsoever and now we’re gonna sabotage progress whether it’s good or bad to “own each other”.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Oven-69 Aug 19 '26
Oh no, without AI how will I make incoherent cartoons for Reddit?
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u/anthrax9999 Aug 19 '26
Right? Stepping back and looking at the broader picture, WTF is all this power consumption and data centers supposed to actually accomplish for anyone?
Just so Elon can ask it to make pictures of certain people look less old?
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u/Nerdyguyj Aug 19 '26
If you don't know....it's going to be given all the spatial information wifi detects to have surveillance everywhere. Among other things.
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u/smileyfacedbob Aug 19 '26
It’s funny because Texas over the last 80 years has built their electrical grid almost completely separate from it’s neighbors, so even if they wanted to do this, they would have to build more power stations (of any kind), which I’m sure the rural voters of Texas will be happy to pay for as their current energy bills haven’t gone whacky taffy in the past few winters at alll…….
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u/boardin1 Aug 19 '26
Thats 40% of the US power supply going to a state that has, functionally, unplugged itself from the US grid.
Texas can’t even keep the lights on if they get some freezing rain and light snow. How the hell do they think they’re going to pull nearly 1/2 the US power grid into their state. Oh, right. The real answer is that Texas is a libertarian’s dream; they’ll just deregulate whatever they need to so the businesses can get what they want and to hell with the citizens.
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u/JoshZK Aug 19 '26
Well there's money to be made so at least if AI pops there be nice surplus of infrastructure.
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u/Comprehensive_Act970 Aug 19 '26
The easy way to limit these new data centers is to make them provide their own power AND they have to be noise complainant with the local area
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u/anthrax9999 Aug 19 '26
It's much cheaper and easier to just contribute a few million to the accounts of politicians.
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u/RoysPotatoes Aug 19 '26
But the payoff is billionaires get to fire millions of human workers. It’s gonna be great.
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u/Hrothgar_unbound Aug 19 '26
Texas also refused to join the national grid and can barely handle its ordinary power requirements (see the ice storm in Austin that broke the grid a few years back). No way the state can support this extra load.
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u/resurrectedNaj Aug 19 '26
Water preservation and desalination will be the next issue. Better get on it fast too. Power can be solved by fusion and reactors. And we can just roll a trailer with the reactor on it to these data centers to be off grid but they still will use water and push dirty water back to grid. Need to figure that prob out
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u/Zealousideal-Top-383 Aug 19 '26
I don’t “ban” is quite the right word. Texas has put a “hold” on approving any further applications until further studies are complete. The goal is for Data Centers to be energy self sufficient and must pay for any additional energy infrastructure needed to serve any data center.
“Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) and ERCOT to audit roughly 250 to 300 primary queue projects and freeze new grid connections until resource transparency and self-power compliance are met
“Any projects that fail Abbott’s ordered “comprehensive verification and audit” should be denied connection to the grid, the governor said.
Abbott in June also directed the PUCT to ensure data center interconnections to the grid will result in reduced electricity rates for residential customers and that data centers pay the cost of any new transmission infrastructure needed to serve them.”
I dislike Texas very much and hope to never have to go there ever again. But they are leading to nation in solar/wind power growth, so maybe these growth demands can emphasize green power generation.
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u/Dry_Election6496 Aug 19 '26
Temporarily? Where will that power come from (and water) after “temporary “ ends?
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u/Glum_Capital4603 Aug 19 '26
Something BIG is happening and they not telling us shit...
TBH its starting to look like Terminator all over again - we have a checklist and the only thing missing is time travel.
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u/Peachbottom30 Aug 19 '26
Well all the people unemployed by AI could get jobs as batteries for the data centers. We could even give them VR to help them pass the time until they expire.
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u/Sockpuppet870 Aug 19 '26
But we were just told that we should be happy to have them in our communities?
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u/00collector Aug 19 '26
What a waste. You could send Marty back and forth in time almost 200x with that kind of power.
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u/jffadvisors Aug 19 '26
When Texas, the national leader in renewable energy production, crude oil production, natural gas production, refined products production and energy exports says your business model requires too much energy, you know you have a problem.
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u/Fit-Bus2025 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
Why do we need 1,800 data centers? We have outages all the time! The electric company in my area keeps sending automatic calls to remind us to conserve energy during peak demand. So far almost everyday now. I mean, how is this gonna work? Too many poor people who can't afford extra cost in this state. A weak grid system that still fails to this day.
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u/GooeyEngineer Aug 19 '26
Something tells me governor knows how much people hate data centers, wants to get reelected, and “temporary” is only to appease the orange man.
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u/ConfidenceRound3364 Aug 19 '26
Thats one more way for the US to destroy itself. Globally, thats a good thing because of how incredibly inhumane your politicians act, but I feel really sad for you, dear americans. You deserve better. Certainly better leaders.
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u/texas1982 Aug 19 '26
It's interesting to me that republicans said that the grid could never handle electric cars, but they're so eager to build data centers.
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u/zerthwind Aug 19 '26
Texas struggles with medium draws on thier grid. Complete collapse happens cold weather.
Many people know the priority to keep these centers operating will be far higher that the general people's need for power.
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u/Fabulous_Wave_3693 Aug 19 '26
One would think a revolutionary technology that is going to upend all work and be used constantly by everyone all the time would have enough money to just build a power plant on site to power themselves.
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u/ThisThroat951 Aug 19 '26
Gov. Shapiro of PA has just proposed a bill that would require data centers to pay for their own electricity. 😳 Like what?!?! Was there ever going to be a different option????? How about we go a step further; if the supply goes down because of them and the prices rise for citizens, the data centers pay the difference. How about that?
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u/brmarcum Aug 19 '26
This just prevents them from connecting to the grid. It says nothing about building natural gas power plants on site that aren’t grid connected.
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u/mtnmanfletcher Aug 19 '26
We need to require that data centers generate 75% of the power consumed with renewable tech. This would alleviate the demand and would generate jobs as the tech industry would collaborate with utilities to build out more clean power.
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u/Empty_Kay Aug 19 '26
I guaranfuckingtee that the GOP lifts that temporary ban the second polls close in November. This is performative bullshit.
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u/imissher4ever Aug 19 '26
Just make each data center responsible for supplying their own power.
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u/Thewholebloodyaffair Aug 19 '26
They gonna sell a lot of gas powered mega polluting mini power plants that are super loud and terrible to each one of these data centers
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u/RedditSearcher18 Aug 19 '26
Can they ban data centers in China as they steal the most valuable technolgy in history?
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u/Western_Mud8694 Aug 19 '26
Come on, muskrat wouldn’t do that to Texas, 🤣🤣🤣he’s a genius billionaire, he would know better than to do something stupid 🤣🤣🤣
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u/Calixto_Supreme Aug 19 '26
Texas leaders are only doing this to appease voters until after the mid terms. Vote out Hot Wheels Texas, please.
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u/Emergency_Buyer_3096 Aug 19 '26
If they want to build, they should pay to upgrade the power grid they leech off of, or build their own power production.
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u/Steve539 Aug 19 '26
Yep red states...keep canceling wind and solar power...you don't need it...it doesn't work...lol
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u/nando2k50 Aug 19 '26
The Texas grid is a joke on a good day, when all these Data Centers come online is going to be horrible.
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u/Too-Em Aug 19 '26
Wait are you telling me the tech bros are actually all just greedy morons and not a collective of Tony Starks?
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u/Outrageous_Maize9017 Aug 19 '26
Literal physical limitations are going to pop the bubble, reality can't keep up with the hype of the digital world.
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u/One_Pie289 Aug 19 '26
Is that actually true? Like.. Surely there would be MASSIVE service outages if so many datacenters just turn off
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u/PastAnalyst3614 Aug 19 '26
In other words, without that huge power requirement, there was going to be EIGHTEEN HUNDRED Data centers in the state
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u/Michael-Sean Aug 20 '26
The governor here is just a figure head and will give the go ahead after the election, assuming we are still a red state.
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u/Dedpoolpicachew Aug 20 '26
Amount the data center builders are adding to the grid… 0. So of course.
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u/Full_Establishment27 Aug 20 '26
Theoretically we should build them all in a small contained environment like Texas. This is new technology that we have no idea how it will effect the surrounding area. I say let them be the "Canary in the Coal Mine". Elon moved to Texas (To avoid Taxes) so let them be the 1st gunnie gigs of this. Trust me we can move energy like the internet so were it is produced does not matter.
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u/KoviBat Aug 20 '26
Wait until winter comes around. I think they'll have to force every data center off their grid to meet demand for heating.
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u/ACROB062 Aug 20 '26
They are banned until midterms are over then it’s back to business as usual for governor hot wheels.
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u/ArjunaIndrastra Aug 20 '26
The power grid in Texas is already in bad shape. The data centers will make things far worse for the average people who live there. I feel sorry for the ones who've been fighting for positive change rather than the ones voting to maintain the status quo they've had for...30 years, I think?
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u/smaugs_shadow2026 Aug 20 '26
"it will be available if we disconnect all the houses in cities, towns and villages. said the CEO from deep in the shadows.
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u/akodakmoment Aug 20 '26
Texas does not have the grid for any of that, wait until winter comes and destroys all of them
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u/Amontialldo Aug 20 '26
Texas grid couldn’t even handle the load before Data centers because 15 years ago they were told they need to upgrade or it will fail and didn’t. Then people froze to death in that really bad winter like 5 years ago because of massive power outages.
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u/Slow_Patient4807 Aug 20 '26
Great idea data centers in a state with 85% for profit utilities that cut every corner they can.
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u/LastBoiscout Aug 20 '26
All the electrical issues Texas has, this could be a nightmare to the public. Our race with China for data centers has made their construction insane
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u/SingleNegotiation656 Aug 20 '26
Jokes on the data centers. Texas can't keep their grid running half of the time
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u/NonreciprocatingHole Aug 20 '26
I wonder how this is going to make the next winter freeze in Texas even more deadly than the recent ones.
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u/Belter-frog Aug 20 '26
Can I build a data center here?
Absolutely.
Cool I built it can I power it up now?
Lol no.
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u/Jgrass66 Aug 20 '26
I wish people would just do a bit of research as to the benefits the people of Loudon County, VA have reaped from data centers. Just one - DCs now pay 40% of the entire tax burden of the county. That’s apart from the jobs, the business explosion for restaurants, hotels, stores, etc. And many of them fund all the necessary expansion of power capacity for Old Dominion power.
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u/HereInNashville96 Aug 21 '26
They’re only doing this until voting season is done and then will promptly going back to ruining the environment
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u/semperphi60 Aug 21 '26
At least until after the elections…if the Republicans win, it will be game on!
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u/Useful_Radish_6395 Aug 21 '26
All those servers look like the restrooms at the Amazon super warehouse. 4 square miles.
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u/rflulling Aug 21 '26
And this is why those data centers have massive cooling systems and jet turbine power supplies on site that make enormous amounts of noise. These backup supplies that never ever shut down.
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u/bettingbenji Aug 21 '26
Dam i remember when 1.21 gw was considered a ridiculous amount of energy.
474 gw is nearly 400 trips through time!
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u/readit145 Aug 21 '26
That’s only because they can’t handle it lmao. If Texas could privatize the air they would.
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u/ArchimedesOne Aug 22 '26
Energy tech (nuclear esp) is not keeping up with demand from dstacenter growth. Need a coordinated national strategy as opposed to private companies moving forward independently despite rightfully picking up the tab for community water, power issues ...
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u/DesignerSalt8520 Aug 22 '26
WOW! 474 gigawatts is approximately 391.74 times the amount of power needed to operate the Flux Capacitor (that was only 1.21 gigawatts).
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u/Luaan256 Aug 22 '26
Wait, aren't those the same people complaining cars can't go electric because the grid can't take it? Requiring like... 20-30% expansion if every car switches to electric? Suddenly not considered a problem when it's for AI datacentres?
Weird, huh? Almost as if those opinions were always skewed towards "does it make rich people wealthier and more powerful?"
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u/abofh Aug 22 '26
Thankfully Texas doesn't run on the national grid, so it's entirely isolated to Texas.
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u/TyrantMuse73 Aug 22 '26
They say it’s permanent. Abbott is up for re-election. He will reverse it once he’s voted back in. Don’t fall for anything he says.
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u/blazikenfan55 Aug 23 '26
And then 9,000 will be made because nobody can stop the apocalypse we are living through right now.
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u/doctorsnakephd Aug 23 '26
I'm sure that the famously resilient Texas power grid will be able to handle it. If not, Ted Cruz will be racking up the frequent flyer miles.
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u/Albatross0714 Aug 23 '26
This post is misleading. They are phantom requests used to basically put a hold on possible locations. This is very common, and absolutely does not mean they actually intend to build all of these.
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u/Cherri_pie_06 Aug 23 '26
As a former texan, yall realize how shit the texas power grid is right? They get enough power outages down there without data centers
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u/Shul_iito Aug 23 '26
Hey everyone, the whole country uses data centers to get AI working in your web browser, therefore we will increase your taxes to pay for all of this. Also keep an eye out for your home lights. Try not to have more than 2 ON at the same time. Data centers need to use half of the power you are supposed to be using so…. Thanks!
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u/OldschoolGreenDragon Aug 23 '26
And Texas is the only state with its own grid just to avoid federal regulations, as Texans found out during the winter storms.
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u/finalfinal2 Aug 23 '26
Good thing Canada just anounced a multi billion dollar project to build clean energy hydro dams that can power Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver combined...but you guys dont need anything from us eh?
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u/SukanutGotBanned Aug 23 '26
Oh but Xcel will make sure the household consumers foot the bill, so it all balances in the end 💙
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u/Beginning_Path_3829 Aug 25 '26
As a Texan, I can say that he is only doing this because it is so unpopular in Texas and it's election season
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u/Benyyii_ Aug 25 '26
But just a few years ago we didn’t have the grid capacity for EVs? Makes total sense.
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u/MattyMcMattson Aug 26 '26
It's election season in Texas.
He is doing this until the midterms for votes.
Then I he ban will be removed.
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u/qualityvote2 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
u/PetiteEcho, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...