Around 50 were built last year and between 80-100 are under construction right now, not 700 overnight. With about 6 GW consumption or about 24 GW of solar if you consider 25% operation time. The US installs about 30 GW of solar per year currently so you can offset that pretty easily with just one year of just solar power buildout. We need to step up our game- China is building out 300 GW of solar every year.
> Do what China is doing
The massive build-up they have is mostly renewables. Surely, you see the problems with that, right? Georgia is a red state, so it's political suicide to even hint at proposing that. Don't even mention nuclear, Vogtle took three thousand years to get somewhere.
There's also the very important question of what benefit it will bring to the people living (and voting) nearby. A datacenter isn't exactly a massive job centre. I very much doubt they pay any significant taxes. The utilities companies get a fat paycheck and that's about it.
Large scale solar power generation has more than doubled in Georgia since 2020:
https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/#/topic/0?agg=1...
Georgia is ranked 7th in the US for solar power capacity:
https://seia.org/solar-state-by-state/
Texas is number 2, behind only California. Solar power is popular in sunny states even if they're "red," though the most heated political rhetoric doesn't reflect that.
Your second link is interesting, though, because it shows solar in Georgia took a nosedive in 2025. I've got a feeling that that year's data is much more representative of what it will look like in the next two or three decades than any historical trend might be.
A combination of solar/renewables with nuclear is the best strategy over the long term.
And then the data centers scale back how much they need or decide to not build there and now the local ratepayers are on the hook for the increased capacity that the utilities built out.
The data center would be much more welcome (there are still issues) if they were to make sure that the locals aren't going to pay for unneeded power capacity.
What if some one put a running car with the exhaust pointed into your living area without your knowledge and with nothing you can do about it? That's what these datacenters are.
Might as well deal with that as the new normal and get along with the show.
We are not generating this power using renewable energy. Have you looked out the window lately at what is actually happening?
The current administration is enforcing the use of these obsolete technologies, and the likes of Elon Musk are using things like gas turbines in clear contravention of the law in places like Tennessee to satisfy power demand for a thing no one really wants anyway, except the already wealthy who see it as an opportunity to eliminate labor costs and make everyone more pliable and stupid than they already are.
It's worth noting that the same people profiting off the current AI bubble, are the same people donating a lot of time and money to elect and maintain this regime. Have you never heard of the network state? It is rather late in the day to play the fool.
https://www.selc.org/press-release/musks-xai-explores-anothe...
Must be Zero Water (you can fill up like a pool and then have normal water use)
May have purple pipe water for community reuse
Must be Zero Emissions
Maximum decibels at property boundary
Must be zoned datacenter/industrial
Maximum kWh/acre, kWh/m^2 and/or bring your own energy with approval
A moratorium gives policymakers space to rethink energy procurement, interconnection queue reform, and cost allocation, instead of just letting hyperscale builds outpace grid planning. It’s not about banning compute per se it’s about aligning load growth with long-term capacity planning and environmental impact assessments. (For context on how local backlash has shaped policy elsewhere, see how Syaala/Science for Georgia have been tracking community energy use and resource concerns.)
direwolf20•1w ago
bigbadfeline•1w ago
duskwuff•1w ago
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/7/senate-strikes-ai-mor...
toomuchtodo•1w ago
estimator7292•1w ago