from the who-could-have-seen-this-coming? dept.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Equinix and Microsoft may be forced to halt new data center projects in Dublin due to the city's power constricts.
The Times (Via Datacenter Dynamics) reports that Amazon and Microsoft are looking at alternative locations outside Dublin after state-owned electricity operator, EiGrid, imposed a moratorium on new connections in the capital city. The companies had earmarked nearly €2bn for data center expansion in the region.
EirGrid last year warned Dublin faced rolling blackouts due to excess demand, primarily from existing and new major data centers run by cloud giants. Ireland's Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) in 2021 named data centers "the single largest homogenous demand driver" on the grid.
"EirGrid is now applying these criteria to all data center applicants, many of which have decided not to progress their developments," a spokesperson said.
According to The Times, Microsoft and Amazon had received permission to build new facilities but Amazon reportedly hasn't received a connection from EirGrid and was told it would not be eligible for one. Microsoft meanwhile is exploring locations in London, Frankfurt, and Madrid. Amazon is building a data center near London.
[...] In 2017, Microsoft agreed to buy all the output of GE's wind farm in Ireland over the next 15 years to contribute to Ireland's grid. The pair are also investigating energy storage solutions.
Microsoft in July boasted that its "banks of lithium-ion batteries" at its data center in Dublin would be part of the city's answer to capacity constraints. These batteries are set to go into operation later this year. It noted that nearly 400 wind farms in Ireland collectively generate 36% of the country's electricity.
The batteries typically provide uninterruptible power supply, or UPS backup power to data centers, but they have been tested and approved for connection to Ireland's grid so that grid operators can provide uninterrupted service when demand outstrips supply, according to Microsoft, which calls it battery plan "grid-interactive UPS technology".
Microsoft argues there's an environmental benefit to this approach since it allows decarbonization of the grid by using a data center's patties rather than coal and gas to maintain excess capacity (or a "spinning reserve") in the grid. It reckons this can avoid two million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2025, amounting to about a fifth of the island's total emissions that year.
Related Stories
The Verge, Space News, and The South China Morning Post are reporting that Red China has begun assembling a 744 TOPS super computer in Earth's orbit. The advantages of an orbital super computer include better access to solar energy, easier radiation of waste heat, and, above all, shorter communications times with other satellites.
The satellites communicate with each other at up-to-100Gbps using lasers, and share 30 terabytes of storage between them, according to Space News. The 12 launched last week carry scientific payloads, including an X-ray polarization detector for picking up brief cosmic phenomena such as gamma-ray bursts. The satellites also have the capability to create 3D digital twin data that can be used for purposes like emergency response, gaming, and tourism, ADA Space says in its announcement.
- — China begins assembling its supercomputer in space. The Verge.
They are part of the Three-Body Computing Constellation, space-based infrastructure being developed by Zhejiang Lab. Once complete, the constellation would support real-time, in-orbit data processing with a total computing capacity of 1,000 peta operations per second (POPS) – or one quintillion operations per second – the report said.
- — China launches satellites to start building the world's first supercomputer in orbit. The South China Morning Post.
The satellites feature advanced AI capabilities, up to 100 Gbps laser inter-satellite links and remote sensing payloads—data from which will be processed onboard, reducing data transmission requirements. One satellite also carries a cosmic X-ray polarimeter developed by Guangxi University and the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), which will detect, identify and classify transient events such as gamma-ray bursts, while also triggering messages to enable followup observations by other missions.
Maintenance will be difficult.
Previously:
(2025) PA's Largest Coal Plant to Become 4.5GW Gas-Fired AI Hub
(2025) FTC Removes Posts Critical of Amazon, Microsoft, and AI Companies
(2025) Real Datacenter Emissions Are A Dirty Secret
(2022) Amazon and Microsoft Want to Go Big on Data Centres, but the Power Grid Can't Support Them
(Score: 5, Insightful) by MIRV888 on Saturday August 27 2022, @05:27AM
I'm no politician, but doesn't seem like allowing corporate interests to deny your citizens electricity would be a poor decision.
That's just me.
(Score: 4, Informative) by bradley13 on Saturday August 27 2022, @05:48AM (13 children)
IT in general and data centre's on particular are a pretty significant industry in Ireland. The government is generally responsible for ensuring infrastructure is in place to support current and future needs.
This is a planning failure, pure and simple.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by janrinok on Saturday August 27 2022, @09:14AM (2 children)
Yes you are right. Amazon and Microsoft should have planned to generate enough power to meet their future needs. They could have done this directly or they could have contributed to the national infrastructure programs to ensure that the power is available when they need it. This is a planning failure, pure and simple.
But they didn't do that. They expect the tax payers of Ireland (to which they contribute very little when compared to their profits) to stump up the money to pay for the additional infrastructure necessary to make the companies even bigger profits. Unless they had a formal written agreement with the government to provide that power then they haven't got much to complain about, in my opinion.
They didn't plan such an agreement. They didn't plan to ensure that their future power needs would be available. They didn't plan on much other than dreaming of ever bigger profits. And it is not too late to use some of their profits to build the infrastructure that they need. Why do big companies think that everybody else owes them something? As you so correctly pointed out: This is a planning failure, pure and simple.
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday August 27 2022, @10:56AM (1 child)
The real question - what does the "very little" contribution compare to the cost of improving the grid? Sounds like those data centers might not pay much in taxes, but they don't cost much either.
Probably because it works. And sounds to me like that might be the planning model in Ireland. Nobody has to plan anything because government will plan it for you?
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday August 28 2022, @10:51PM
Isn't that the reason these industries are located in Ireland rather than elsewhere in Europe?
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday August 27 2022, @04:10PM
> This is a planning failure, pure and simple.
Absolutely. To deconstruct it further, it's a timeline disparity. Amazon, MS, et al can build a power-gobbling data center in months. But adding the desired power capacity will take years.
Suppose govt + power companies build up that capacity, but AWS, MS, et al bail? Who foots that bill?
Possible solution would be that AWS, MS, et al must put monies in escrow account to back the power generation and grid additions.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 27 2022, @04:30PM (8 children)
Just maybe, this cap on available power will finally put pressure on software bloat? With more efficient software the big data centers could get more done (that is, serve even more ads...) on the same power budget.
Nah, that'll never happen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 27 2022, @06:00PM (6 children)
Who says that hyperscalers are using inefficient software? They know that reducing power consumption or increasing efficiency saves them money. They are even designing their own hardware like TPUs or Graviton.
The problem is that data demands keep on increasing. Internet traffic increases about 25% per year. Joe Average can shoot 4K video and stream it to his followers live.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28 2022, @01:02AM (5 children)
Yeah, that's bullshit.
Try this test, get a fairly mediocre machine and play a youtube video on it. Time how long it takes to load the page, how long to start playing, etc.
Then in the address bar change
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbYWhdLO43Q [youtube.com]
to
https://www.youtube.com/embed/YbYWhdLO43Q [youtube.com]
and time it all again.
It's not the video slowing things down.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28 2022, @02:26AM (4 children)
Neat, so why is /embed/ so much faster? And why doesn't YT load all vids this way?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday August 28 2022, @06:32AM (3 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28 2022, @09:30PM (2 children)
So if we all start editing YT links to /embed/ ... how long before YouTube removes this option?
I'm going to start doing this for links I post and send to friends (from time to time, I don't mail bomb my friends...)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday August 28 2022, @09:34PM
Embed is part of their business model. I think they'll have a hard time getting rid of that, but if they do, I'm fine with the subsequent loss of business.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28 2022, @10:50PM
It already doesn't work for all videos. Sometimes you get a grey screen with "This video must be watched on youtube" and a link to the "/watch=" site.
I think it depends on whether it's monetised, but I don't really know.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Sunday August 28 2022, @02:33AM
I recall various tests determining that about 90% of internet traffic is ads and bots.
How much electricity does that waste?
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday August 27 2022, @06:26AM (8 children)
Contribute to the power grid they're such a burden on. You know, invest in power stations, upgrade power lines... participate in the upkeep of the commons instead of exploiting it for all it's worth like they always do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 27 2022, @09:07AM (5 children)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by janrinok on Saturday August 27 2022, @09:18AM (1 child)
Yes, they are - but that doesn't mean they can just demand more than the generating capacity can provide. How much advance notice did Amazon and Microsoft provide to the generating company? Why can't the companies that need the power pay to have the generating capacity increase rather than leaving it to the citizens of Ireland to pay for it?
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by legont on Saturday August 27 2022, @04:01PM
What's more important, they don't guarantee future use. Any power project has at least 30 years time span. Good luck to find an investor on these terms.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 27 2022, @09:46AM (2 children)
The public has all the power they need. If the excess demand is from datacenters, it's not reasonable to expect everyone to foot the bill for new power plants that will only be used by four or five companies while those same companies just keep paying the usual rate.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday August 28 2022, @06:34AM (1 child)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28 2022, @09:39PM
For the same kinds of capacity reasons that demand-metering exists. If your industrial process needs big power every now and then, that power costs much more per kWh than the "usual rate". A data center that could be shut down at anytime (as noted up-thread) is potentially a fickle customer.
One big wind tunnel I know (25,000 hp at full transsonic speed) has to phone their local power company and request extra turbines be put online...before they even consider starting up. The demand-metering rate is so high that at one point they considered putting in local generation--for example re-purposing some used diesel-electric locomotives. But the economics didn't pay back (that was 10 years ago, they may be looking again at some point).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ElizabethGreene on Saturday August 27 2022, @02:47PM (1 child)
Buying the output of a solar farm and installing grid scale batteries aren't contributing to the grid? Working with the power companies to project demand years ahead of time isn't contributing?
What's the bar you're looking for?
The electrical grid is not a commons. It is a for-profit enterprise that delivers a commodity at an agreed-upon price.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday August 27 2022, @04:23PM
People may not generally know this, but I know that (I'm pretty sure) all Amazon "Fulfillment Centers" (warehouses) are pretty much covered in solar PV panels. So they've done at least that much. I'm not sure how much they generate vs. use- IE, do they generate more than they use during the day? I think I can find out (I know someone...)
I also know they're building out EV charging infrastructure, including paying for utility-level upgrades where necessary.
Absolutely agree. The bordering-on-politics question is: should electric grid be a commons? (I kind of think yes- you can't get a Certificate of Occupancy for a building without working electricity. I know electricity companies are highly regulated, but I'm not sure the whole thing works efficiently or very well for everyone. Same for Internet access...)
(Score: -1, Troll) by BleedingRunaway on Saturday August 27 2022, @07:21AM (1 child)
Good thing no real ACs can post here, because they might have real information on this alleged situation. Good job, janrinok.
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Saturday August 27 2022, @10:57AM
My flying pig squadron rises in support of this serious concern.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Candlestick on Saturday August 27 2022, @07:40AM (1 child)
Yes! Do that!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 27 2022, @04:25PM
You seriously and literally need strong medication.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MIRV888 on Saturday August 27 2022, @01:29PM (1 child)
Regardless of the heat source to boil the water, (and that's an issue on it's own), power generation scale turbines are incredibly expensive pieces of hardware. The generators. transformers, 7kV breakers, and distribution gauge wiring are also expensive. There's simply no way to increase grid capacity without considerable up front capitol and several years lead time to build a base load scale power plant (or wind farm). Microsoft & Amazon knew exactly what they were doing. Shit, between the 2 companies they could build a 500+ megawatt scale generation facility and not blink at their overall profits.
Ireland is being scammed.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday August 28 2022, @06:45PM
That's why CWLP [cwlp.com] is building a solar farm outside of town. One of their coal-fired generators broke, and repairs would have cost twice what the solar farm will. At the added benefit of all that carbon that won't be released (although they still have three working-coal fired generators).
Impeach Donald Palpatine and his sidekick Elon Vader
(Score: 3, Funny) by EJ on Saturday August 27 2022, @02:23PM (1 child)
When gasoline cars are banned, we'll have PLENTY of electricity because everyone will be using it to charge their cars.
(Score: 3, Touché) by legont on Saturday August 27 2022, @04:04PM
Why? There is coal galore for running IT, cars and heating houses. Green paradise.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2, Touché) by dwilson98052 on Monday August 29 2022, @04:28AM
...if they focused on removing bloat and increasing efficiency they could do more with what they already have.