Hacker News Reader

Comment by xnx | Hacker News Reader

Related coverage without invoking the AI bogeyman:

"Liberty Utilities needs to replace 75% of Tahoe power supply as NV Energy deal ends soon"

https://mynews4.com/news/local/liberty-utilities-needs-to-re...

from the article: "NV Energy plans to end its contract with Liberty in May 2027, citing growing demand and its own resource constraints."

the "growing demand" is the AI datacenters (the linked story goes into detail). it's the direct result, so while it might feel soothing that this other story doesnt actually mention "AI" it's mostly just an omission.

(edit) the issue is that there's a sudden tight timeline and yes as other comments mention it's too bad the issue wasn't addressed sooner, but that's not very unusual when there's no major impetus to force a change. and that whether or not AI/LLM is a net good for society (I literally have Claude writing code for me as I type this), the energy issue is one that seems to be a real one (unlike the water issue which mostly seems to be not so real).

the town^H^H^H^H region (edit) is already in the process of expanding their infrastructure to get power from elsewhere so things will be "fine", but this is a terrible time to have a government that is rabidly cancelling non-fossil energy projects as fast as possible.

Tahoe is not a town. It is a region containing many towns. Most of it will continue to have power (mostly through NV Energy). This is a single utility that has failed to plan for this planned transition for 17 years. Invoking the data center bogeyman for political sympathy is the only thing going on here. Liberty has failed repeatedly to address this problem for nearly two decades and it's beyond time they were cut loose. I have sympathy for the people who have to suffer from their failure but this is not NV Energy's fault nor is it related to data centers at all: NV energy has been rapidly expanding capacity faster than growth in consumption and has 19 active geothermal plants in the area with more on the way as well as wind and solar.

I have no problem with new datacenters being built, but if the Fortune article is to be believed, it's that the suddenly tight timeline is due to the rapid increase in need for these facilities.

my post is more about how we really need to be seeking energy sources from all possible corners, and we have a government that is literally paying billions to contractors to cancel wind projects.

The timeline expired 17 years ago. They've been granted numerous extensions. This deadline is neither new nor "suddenly tight". They were granted another extension last year. They're simply informing Liberty there will be no further extensions. If you have to wonder who's wrong: The utility that's been granting extensions for 17 years or the utility that's been missing their deadline for 17 years I think you'll have your answer if you think about it.

> without invoking the AI bogeyman

If AI is the cause of these data centers, why is it not the bogey man? This sounds like you personally want to use AI with out acknowledging the externalities and the burden your use of AI puts on your fellow citizens.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com