Post AwiR9A61yCE2OUQaOG by cargot_robbie@urbanists.social
 (DIR) More posts by cargot_robbie@urbanists.social
 (DIR) Post #AwiR9A61yCE2OUQaOG by cargot_robbie@urbanists.social
       2025-08-01T04:28:32Z
       
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       I don't know much about modern data centres, beyond a basic understanding of server hardware. Their penchant for water usage for because of cooling, right? If cost were not an issue, how bad for the environment would an LLM prompt still be if fulfilled by data centre that is powered exclusively by solar/wind power, and cooled with closed-loop cooling?#LLM #Datacenters #Environment
       
 (DIR) Post #AwiR9BFzedmxzg63Ye by picofarad@noauthority.social
       2025-08-01T05:16:05Z
       
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       @cargot_robbie entropy gets you in the end, so there will be heat islanding both around the solar installation (which will be pretty massive, more in a moment), and the cooling system. solar is like 27$ efficient, so insolation is like 1kw/m^2, but we can get 270W in a square meter. Roughly. regardless i think there's an upper bound of 350W or something. So my GPU uses about that, so you'd need 3 square meters just to run my GPU 24/7, assuming perfect alignment (which adds cost)...
       
 (DIR) Post #AwiRa9YE6ZqYWPUE6q by picofarad@noauthority.social
       2025-08-01T05:20:59Z
       
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       @cargot_robbie I can go dig up how much power a datacenter uses, but probably in the 1MW range (i use 2.4MWh a month at my house, for perspective, DCs use that every hour, i'd reckon). So you need like 25000 square meters of panels to power that 24/7, assuming decent sun and no cloudy skies. 0.03km^2
       
 (DIR) Post #AwiRtKXHUKZc5nBlD6 by picofarad@noauthority.social
       2025-08-01T05:24:27Z
       
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       @cargot_robbie anyhow you need 1MW of cooling minimum, too, and in hotter areas, more. so assuming you're doing freon or propane cooling, you're looking at another 10000m^2 of solar panels.regardless, that 1.4MW of heat is now being put outside the building into the environment, adding to the heat island / heat dome in the area.Ideally, you'd put a temperature sensor there a year before the DC is installed, so you can claim "climate change is accelerating" after the DC is installed.