A massive data center at xAI’s controversial site in Memphis, Tennessee is emitting huge plumes of pollution, according to footage recorded by an environmental watchdog group.
A massive data center at xAI’s controversial site in Memphis, Tennessee is emitting huge plumes of pollution, according to footage recorded by an environmental watchdog group.
Direct quote from the article:
Looks like it’s not just cooling that they’re doing there. The link in the quote leads to an article describing the data centre’s new turbines, specifically referring to them as methane gas turbines.
I skimmed that article briefly and I don’t think it points out the mechanism by which these turbines work - if it does, I must’ve missed it. I did however see a line that said the turbines also release formaldehyde during operation.
Methane in this case seems to me to either be a byproduct of power generation or unused fuel somehow leaking from the system. I have no clue how gas turbines work, so I’m talking out of my ass here. In any case this seems to be the source of the methane emissions.
It’s amazing to me that cloud computing is so profitable that they can run inefficient gas generators to power it.
People don’t think about the internet being fossil fuel powered.
Methane is what the majority of natural gas is made up of, and if your generator isn’t made to be very efficient (like a real power station is), you’ll lose some of your fuel unburnt into the atmosphere.
Kinda like unburnt wood smoke vapour, which could have been burned in a higher quality wood burner, but just goes up the chimney in an open fire.