Chevron plans massive Texas power plant for Microsoft, eyes oilfield wastewater as a water source

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/chevron-microsoft-permian-gas-produced-water-22315265.php?fbclid=IwY2xjawSnsQtleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFqMmt6RmtISXRpUXVYMjMxc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHncJ8dOqInIRri-5IIYX7vpjay1yRjgAuBUFPvs3DvwtwsALly4YP_et4FdG_aem_-yM4U4jxCPnSPKcR0klbCA

Interesting.

[Cyber Liberty]

Meh...paywall. 

[rustynail]

Chevron has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft to develop Project Kilby, a $7 billion co-located natural gas power plant and data center campus in Reeves County, West Texas.  The facility, developed by Chevron’s subsidiary Energy Forge One in collaboration with Engine No. 1, is designed to deliver 2.67 gigawatts of dedicated, grid-free electricity to support Microsoft’s AI infrastructure, with first power delivery targeted for 2028.

To mitigate environmental impacts in the arid region, the project will utilize non-potable brackish groundwater and aims to incorporate recycled oilfield wastewater (produced water) for its operations.  The plant will employ advanced emissions controls, such as Selective Catalytic Reduction systems to lower nitrogen oxide levels, and is expected to generate over $10 billion in local tax revenue and support nearly 2,000 jobs.  Hardware suppliers include GE Vernova for primary turbines and Caterpillar (via Solar Turbines) for backup capacity.

[Cyber Liberty]

 

[DefiantMassRINO]

The most time-efficient thing to do is co-locate new data centers in energy production areas ... most are business-friendly ... fewer NIMBY's ... allows for grid-disconnected intra-site electricity generation ... fewer regulatory jurisdictions by the avoidance of interstate energy infrastructure and public eletric grid exposure.

Texas, Louisianna, Oklahoma, North Dakota could make a killing and diversify their local economies at the expense of NIMBY Blue and Purple states.

[Cyber Liberty]

The most time-efficient thing to do is co-locate new data centers in energy production areas ... most are business-friendly ... fewer NIMBY's ... allows for grid-disconnected intra-site electricity generation ... fewer regulatory jurisdictions by the avoidance of interstate energy infrastructure and public eletric grid exposure.

Texas, Louisianna, Oklahoma, North Dakota could make a killing and diversify their local economies at the expense of NIMBY Blue and Purple states.

Those states would be better options than low-water states like mine, other than being on the Colorado River where I live.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

The most time-efficient thing to do is co-locate new data centers in energy production areas ... most are business-friendly ... fewer NIMBY's ... allows for grid-disconnected intra-site electricity generation ... fewer regulatory jurisdictions by the avoidance of interstate energy infrastructure and public eletric grid exposure.

Texas, Louisianna, Oklahoma, North Dakota could make a killing and diversify their local economies at the expense of NIMBY Blue and Purple states.

I guess they need to be near population centers though.

[Bigun]

I guess they need to be near population centers though.

Reeves County Texas if FAR from any real population center. About 200 miles to the closest unless you count Odessa as a population center (it isn't one) and that is 75 miles away. Take my word for that.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Reeves County Texas if FAR from any real population center. About 200 miles to the closest unless you count Odessa as a population center (it isn't one) and that is 75 miles away. Take my word for that.

Ah ok... maybe not so much then.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

I guess they need to be near population centers though.

Why?  Seems to be near the Coast or a large body of water is even more beneficial for access to water.  Just like a nuclear plant would be near water.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Why?  Seems to be near the Coast or a large body of water is even more beneficial for access to water.  Just like a nuclear plant would be near water.

Data is not like electricity, in theory distance is not an obstacle, but in practice it is. It's why CDN's exist.

But in that case... why not inner rustbelt cities? We have plenty of room in the US, we just don't have the will.

[catfish1957]

Cogen plants are the ultimate of money makers.  Cha-ching.  Refinery off gas that can be converted to KWH?   

[Cyber Liberty]

Data is not like electricity, in theory distance is not an obstacle, but in practice it is. It's why CDN's exist.

But in that case... why not inner rustbelt cities? We have plenty of room in the US, we just don't have the will.

Detroit would be the perfect location.  Mile after mile of empty property that can be had for pennies on the dollar, that cannot be converted into farmland because of the extensive pollution of heavy metals.  Plenty of water available because of proximity to the St. Claire river....

[Free Vulcan]

Data is not like electricity, in theory distance is not an obstacle, but in practice it is. It's why CDN's exist.

But in that case... why not inner rustbelt cities? We have plenty of room in the US, we just don't have the will.

And what is the upside? To whip your schlong out of your pants and say 'I'm keepin' up with the Chinese! 'Merica!'?

I can think of plenty of downsides though.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

And what is the upside? To whip your schlong out of your pants and say 'I'm keepin' up with the Chinese! 'Merica!'?

I can think of plenty of downsides though.

Jobs? Go check out how many rural folks are on disability, and many IMO can work. Maybe some of them can start working again?

Or just a better job than working in fast food or something? Datacenters need lots of maintenance.

This is America, dude. Not everyone wants to sit at home on disability.

[Cyber Liberty]

And what is the upside? To whip your schlong out of your pants and say 'I'm keepin' up with the Chinese! 'Merica!'?

I can think of plenty of downsides though.

We need data centers to be inside the US.  I don't trust people in China with our data!  It's not a penis measuring thing.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

We need data centers to be inside the US.  I don't trust people in China with our data!  It's not a penis measuring thing.

I was big into home automation a few years back, bought a lightbulb speaker thing, that connected to your smartphone. However, I noted that the server it was trying to talk to (the app) was somewhere in China... no thanks. Haven't really bought much in the way of home automation since.

[Free Vulcan]

Jobs? Go check out how many rural folks are on disability, and many IMO can work. Maybe some of them can start working again?

You mean construction jobs? Jobs that would happen with any building project? In most places the construction guys are so busy at it is they couldn't take on more if they wanted to. Which they won't, because most of it would require outside firms who specialize in that kind of thing

After it's constructed, you'd employ a handful of techies to watch over it, maybe. So net permanent jobs is what, 20?

[Free Vulcan]

We need data centers to be inside the US.  I don't trust people in China with our data!  It's not a penis measuring thing.

I'm just not sure why we need them at all, or at least so many. The average person doesn't generate that much data, and one center could probably track every one in the world. Why are they being planned and built by the dozens?

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

You mean construction jobs? Jobs that would happen with any building project? In most places the construction guys are so busy at it is they couldn't take on more if they wanted to. Which they won't, because most of it would require outside firms who specialize in that kind of thing

After it's constructed, you'd employ a handful of techies to watch over it, maybe. So net permanent jobs is what, 20?

Probably the same as a large manufacturing facility... with ai and robots, industrial jobs aren't what they used to be.

I'm all for building housing... the same screaming mimis that oppose data centers usually oppose building housing too.

Not to mention tax income on the properties.

I think only 60% of working age people are in the labor force, anything to change that would be helpful imo.

[Cyber Liberty]

I'm just not sure why we need them at all, or at least so many. The average person doesn't generate that much data, and one center could probably track every one in the world. Why are they being planned and built by the dozens?

Before I retired I worked in the R&D department of a very large Semiconductor company.  The need for data centers was and is larger than most folks can imagine.

[Bigun]

Before I retired I worked in the R&D department of a very large Semiconductor company.  The need for data centers was and is larger than most folks can imagine.

I freely admit to being out of my element WRT data centers, but my gut says that collecting and storing everything about everyone can't be good.

[Free Vulcan]

Before I retired I worked in the R&D department of a very large Semiconductor company.  The need for data centers was and is larger than most folks can imagine.

So if you can say, what are they collecting and the purpose? I can understand someone like say Raytheon or a General Dynamics needed alot of computing power for testing and modeling, but just straight data on things like individual spending habits? It seems like one could handle all that. I know dozens are being planned and built.

[DefiantMassRINO]

The demand is to scale the ability to make inferences, in parallel, at scale to reduce the number of human FTE hours and years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds necessary to make sense of large and complex data sets.

It has the potential to remove human compute as a bottleneck of discovery, innovation, and decision making.

Time is money.  AI has the potential to save a lot of time, and therfore, save a lot of money - increase efficiency and productivity of analysis and decision-making.

[Free Vulcan]

Probably the same as a large manufacturing facility... with ai and robots, industrial jobs aren't what they used to be.

I'm all for building housing... the same screaming mimis that oppose data centers usually oppose building housing too.

Not to mention tax income on the properties.

I think only 60% of working age people are in the labor force, anything to change that would be helpful imo.

Tax income on property would exist for whatever is built there, it's not exclusive to data centers.

Most who oppose housing oppose it because it would not be needed if all the illegals were shipped out of the country. That said comparing it to data centers is a red herring.

I'm not sure that the techie salaries themselves would even pay well.

[Free Vulcan]

The demand is to scale the ability to make inferences, in parallel, at scale to reduce the number of human FTE hours and years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds necessary to make sense of large and complex data sets.

It has the potential to remove human compute as a bottleneck of discovery, innovation, and decision making.

Time is money.  AI has the potential to save a lot of time, and therfore, save a lot of money - increase efficiency and productivity of analysis and decision-making.

For consumer purchasing data? That simply isn't complex enough to require that much computing power.

Walmart probably does 100K transactons a second and handles it all plus the inventory control from Bentonville. It would follow that dozens of data centers would collectively be doing stuff way beyond that to justify that kind of expense and number crunching.

[Cyber Liberty]

So if you can say, what are they collecting and the purpose? I can understand someone like say Raytheon or a General Dynamics needed alot of computing power for testing and modeling, but just straight data on things like individual spending habits? It seems like one could handle all that. I know dozens are being planned and built.

That's actually the real argument here.  What data should be stored?  Is limiting the amount of data storage the most effective way of controlling that?

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

For consumer purchasing data? That simply isn't complex enough to require that much computing power.

Walmart probably does 100K transactons a second and handles it all plus the inventory control from Bentonville. It would follow that dozens of data centers would collectively be doing stuff way beyond that to justify that kind of expense and number crunching.

The way LLM's works uses massive computing resources. It's train on data that has to be stored, stuff like message boards, articles, etc.

[Free Vulcan]

That's actually the real argument here.  What data should be stored?  Is limiting the amount of data storage the most effective way of controlling that?

So basically it's the 'Build It And They Will Come' concept. Yay, nothing could go wrong there.

I can tell you I'm doing my best to limit my personal data, that's for sure.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Tax income on property would exist for whatever is built there, it's not exclusive to data centers.

Most who oppose housing oppose it because it would not be needed if all the illegals were shipped out of the country. That said comparing it to data centers is a red herring.

I'm not sure that the techie salaries themselves would even pay well.

Well i'm waiting to reap the dividends of our current efforts... i don't really see anything yet. Building more housing would make things more affordable to younger generations. Around here the living situation is ridiculous.

[DefiantMassRINO]

The only thing that's stopping the counstruction of additional housing is Government and its NIMBY anti-growth policies.

[Free Vulcan]

Well i'm waiting to reap the dividends of our current efforts... i don't really see anything yet. Building more housing would make things more affordable to younger generations. Around here the living situation is ridiculous.

Shipping out the illegals would do and is doing the same. No need to build.

Reality is, the AI sector is collapsing, data centers will too if there's not return.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Shipping out the illegals would do and is doing the same. No need to build.

Reality is, the AI sector is collapsing, data centers will too if there's not return.

  Waiting for the magic that shipping illegals out would do. I'll have to trust you on this I guess.

AI... needs to get back to reality sure, but... i wouldn't say it's collapsing. It's just that the most breathless promises will never pan out. Another topic for a different day.

[Free Vulcan]

Waiting for the magic that shipping illegals out would do. I'll have to trust you on this I guess.

AI... needs to get back to reality sure, but... i wouldn't say it's collapsing. It's just that the most breathless promises will never pan out. Another topic for a different day.

Rental Market Starts to See Effects of Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

https://www.newsweek.com/immigration-policies-housing-market-impact-trump-2112897

AI is collapsing. It's the next Dot Com bust. There have already been share price decimations in the stock market.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

I can tell you I'm doing my best to limit my personal data, that's for sure.

I absolutely see no reason to ever 'opt in' for any data collection whatsoever.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

I freely admit to being out of my element WRT data centers, but my gut says that collecting and storing everything about everyone can't be good.

Always a good reason to pay cash instead of using credit card, too.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Cogen plants are the ultimate of money makers.  Cha-ching.  Refinery off gas that can be converted to KWH?   

Why not just place them alongside a nuclear plant for instant access to electricity as well as water?

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Detroit would be the perfect location.  Mile after mile of empty property that can be had for pennies on the dollar, that cannot be converted into farmland because of the extensive pollution of heavy metals.  Plenty of water available because of proximity to the St. Claire river....

By the same token, refineries along the California coast soon to be shutdown meet that same criteria

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

I freely admit to being out of my element WRT data centers, but my gut says that collecting and storing everything about everyone can't be good.

Already exists, if you have any social media presence since 2005 or so. 

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Rental Market Starts to See Effects of Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

https://www.newsweek.com/immigration-policies-housing-market-impact-trump-2112897

AI is collapsing. It's the next Dot Com bust. There have already been share price decimations in the stock market.

Of course... the idiotic predictions and proclamations could have never been true, LLM's are great, but limited.

Doesn't mean the computing space won't be a net positive.