Free electricity!

[Crofter]

Not sure if this has been discussed already but sounds interesting: 

 

https://www.euronews.com/2026/03/27/european-country-vows-to-give-homeowners-free-electricity-instead-of-switching-off-wind-tu

 

In short: UK government is going to trial discounted or free electricity on windy days, in certain areas.

 

Mr Octopus says it's a good start but operating as a trial doesn't give the long term confidence needed to get people to switch to EVs and ASHP.

 

Labour had previously ruled out zonal pricing so I'm not sure why they've changed their minds. But, given I live right next to a large wind farm, it sounds good to me!

[BotusBuild]

Put all the AI data centres near the wind farms.

 

That'll get the NImBY's going 😀 

[SteamyTea]

4 minutes ago, BotusBuild said:

Put all the AI data centres near the wind farms

Can't we use the sea to cool them. It would be nice to go for a dip, without a rubber suit on.

 

I saw something about tokens/watt the other day.

ChatGPT uses about 340 MWh/day for a billion queries.

I am not sure if that is good or bad. It is about 10 times a standard Google search.

[BotusBuild]

Combine the two ideas 👍🏻

[Crofter]

I can't find any other sources for this, no official govt press release anyway.

 

If anybody hears more details on this, please post them here.

[SimonD]

6 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

Can't we use the sea to cool them. It would be nice to go for a dip, without a rubber suit on.

 

A good few years ago Microsoft was running an underwater study for exactly this reason - don't know where it got to but with the size of some of these centres, it would be a bit of a task to make them water proof. I think the tests they ran used units the size of shipping container. However, the massive scaling approach by AI is just one silly choice - it's the whose is bigger the better thing. It is actually possible to run very fast and efficient AI on extremely small installations, which maybe at some point they'll realise it makes more sense and costs less money.

[BotusBuild]

From this article - 

 

"After The Times contacted Microsoft, the company said it had updated its projections to reflect new water-saving techniques, including a new data center design and better information from facilities that it leases. It now expects to use about 18 billion liters of water in 2030, up 150 percent from 2020. The new forecast does not include more than $50 billion in data center deals that the company signed last year."

 

It seems, as always with M$, that they didn't tell the whole truth.

[BotusBuild]

So, here's a bit of a joined up idea ....

 

If there is a proposal to provide "free electricity", then use it to do something (AI, urban heating/hot water) that may end up generating excess heat. Take that excess heat and use it to warm greenhouses to grow food.

 

Keep costs of producing stuff (data processing, hot water, tomatoes) to a minimum by using the excess "free electricity".

 

Gizza Job!.

[Beelbeebub]

22 hours ago, BotusBuild said:

Put all the AI data centres near the wind farms.

 

That'll get the NImBY's going 😀 

Force all AI data centers to fund new build renewable capacity and grid upgrades to handle it equal to their demand, up front. 

 

That way whwn the bubble pops, hopefully before the data centers get built, we get a load of free capacity. 😁 

[Beelbeebub]

16 hours ago, SimonD said:

 

A good few years ago Microsoft was running an underwater study for exactly this reason - don't know where it got to but with the size of some of these centres, it would be a bit of a task to make them water proof. I think the tests they ran used units the size of shipping container. However, the massive scaling approach by AI is just one silly choice - it's the whose is bigger the better thing. It is actually possible to run very fast and efficient AI on extremely small installations, which maybe at some point they'll realise it makes more sense and costs less money.

If the centers were sited on the coast not only could the power from ofshore be brought to them easily but they could also have sea water intakes and outlets for the cooling system. 

[SteamyTea]

Wasn't there a company offering to put servers into people's houses, the letting them harvest the excess thermal energy.

 

Maybe be it is time for us all to start questioning how much, behind the scenes, technology we really need. I suspect that there is not really that much added value from a lot of services.