posted in Technology
The Pollution Being Churned Out by AI Data Centers Is So Severe That It's Almost Incomprehensible
futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/pollution-ai-data-centers-severe
If AI is so wonderful they could afford to put up solar panels to power the data centers.
I’m gonna throw some numbers around based on a conversation with my friend the other day.
He works at an oil refinery nearby and under heavy load the whole facility can use up to 150MW of electricity. That’s while being rated as one of the least environmentally harmful refineries in the US. They have ~300 acres of solar panels supplying ~35MW over the course of a full day (~50MW during daylight hours). That means 20~25% of their power needs are fully renewable.
He also mentioned that the new Meta datacenter going up nearby is projected to use ~400MW! That’s two and a half oil refineries! That also means that to cover its electricity use they would need to set up ~2800 acres of solar panels. That’s ~11 times the footprint of the datacenter itself and two large farms worth of space on some of the best farmland in the country!
They definitely should be 100% powering the facility with renewables, but even then I don’t think model training justifies the space and resources that need to be invested to accomplish that.
@Jaycifer solar farms are not exclusive with agricultural farms, though. Especially in areas with a high DLI (lots of sunlight most of the year) they are complimentary: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshpearce/2025/11/15/why-farmers-are-shielding-their-crops-with-solar-panels/
I didn’t state the State, but this is in Minnesota where 53% of the total land area is farmland. Generally speaking if land isn’t forested or inhabited it’s safe to assume it’s being farmed. This datacenter is being built by the oil refinery which is just outside the main metro area of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St Paul) where the farmland really picks up. Wind turbines could be an alternative, but since my friend said it was solar power set up by the refinery I’m assuming that would be the option the datacenter would use as well.
@Jaycifer I am guessing you did not read the article I linked at all because there are substantial agrovoltaic installations in Minnesota already
ALT
I didn’t, and I’ll own that! I saw your definition of DLI, recalled the dark winters we get here, and assumed it would be about somewhere other than Minnesota! A second thought may have reminded me that growing crops the rest of the year does require a lot of sunlight.
That’s neat! Zooming in on the map I might have gone right by one while heading out camping this last weekend and assumed it was not for farming.
I don’t know that Meta is interested in getting into farming enough to make use of agrivoltaics for their datacenter, but it’s good to know that’s a potential option for farmers!