The Alternative Green Energy Thread

JKenH

Silicon Valley finds its silver bullet in a desperate race for energy

Tech giants bet on a nuclear revival to power the supercomputer revolution

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, has assembled what is believed to be the world’s biggest arsenal of Nvidia’s latest AI chips. He told a podcast last month that ultimately using them all in one place could require a gigawatt of power, potentially requiring a dedicated nuclear supply. “A gigawatt [data centre] would be the size of a meaningful nuclear power plant,” he said.

Zuckerberg’s comparison is not simply flippant. The desperate race for energy is triggering a wave of interest in nuclear power among the world’s tech barons. Venture capitalists are becoming nuclear boosters, betting that it will be the power source to keep the AI boom running.

While tech companies have made large investments in wind and solar, their intermittency may not be well suited to data centres that run 24 hours a day. Nuclear has no such problem.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/05/05/ai-boom-nuclear-power-electricity-demand/

michaels

That's funny, I thought Nuclear average uptime was about 10 or 11 months per year, not ideal for a data centre that needs 24/7/365?

JKenH

michaels said:

That's funny, I thought Nuclear average uptime was about 10 or 11 months per year, not ideal for a data centre that needs 24/7/365?

Presumably they just plug into the grid like they would when the sun stops shining or the wind doesn’t blow. 

paul991

may be they can build them quicker in USA than we can here. Think ours  will be obsolete before they go on line

1961Nick

paul991 said:

may be they can build them quicker in USA than we can here. Think ours  will be obsolete before they go on line

... or they'll be commissioned just as we make the fusion breakthrough.

charles_b_2

1961Nick said:

paul991 said:

may be they can build them quicker in USA than we can here. Think ours  will be obsolete before they go on line

... or they'll be commissioned just as we make the fusion breakthrough.

Fusion power in 20 years.  Same headline since the 1980's. What bothers me is the insane amount of £'s, €'s and $'s spent and - in passing mention - the Gigawatts consumed in the past 40 years to smash atoms together at ITER, Cern etc.. with enough output to boil a kettle or two. Ok, we have some fancy words for new particles discovered. But we still know relatively little about it all and it's wishful thinking to suggest we'll be able to harness it anytime in the foreseeable future...   Yet there is always a big step forward just over the horizon, we just need more money and power.. Cue CERN Mark 2, twice as big and 20 Km down. Who's going to pay for it and what about the environmental impact.
 Better off spending all this money and power on projects supporting the decarbonisation of countries who need assistance or who will be significantly affected by climate change.

paul991

we need small scale wind and Pv with most if not all roofs covered and  small scale  battery  back up. Will be easier than upgrading the grid

EricMears

charles_b_2 said:

Fusion power in 20 years.  Same headline since the 1980's. 

In the 1960s,  fusion power was expected within next ten years.   Still expecting of course !  

JKenH

Argentina’s realignment with the West (and western capitalism) has huge promise for the supply of cheap, clean (solar produced) lithium and a reduced reliance on Chinese produced lithium. 

Argentina’s Lithium Triangle bonanza hands Javier Milei a trump card

A white gold rush in the Andes threatens China’s dominance in critical minerals

The geopolitical struggle for clean-tech supremacy is being fought at 13,700 feet on the salt lakes of the Argentine Cordillera.

It is here, in the border regions that make up the Lithium Triangle of the high Andes, where China and the West are battling for control over 60pc of the world’s lithium reserves, the critical mineral for electric vehicles and the post-carbon economy.

The process has nothing in common with the extraction of lithium from spodumene rock in Australia or China, which has a carbon footprint seven times higher, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

“Spodumene is very dirty. It has to be cooked in ovens and takes a huge amount of energy. Getting lithium this way costs $9,000 (£7,200) a tonne and creates a huge amount of waste,” said Ernesto Calvo, Argentina’s ‘Mr Lithium’ and a professor at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research. He estimates that lithium from the salt lakes has a break-even cost of $3,000-$3,500 a tonne.

https://tce.exchange/content/f203adfe-2504-4ab8-b80d-b3ba9622d2b2

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/05/09/argentina-lithium-triangle-china-milei-trump-card/

Edit: I suspect I am a little biased in that I would like to see the dominance in RE pivot away from China towards the West but as much of the RE community does not align with western capitalism, here, as a counterpoint, is an article from the Guardian about lithium in Argentina. 

Blinded, sexually assaulted, silenced: the war over lithium, Argentina’s ‘white gold’

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/jan/11/lithium-war-over-argentina-white-gold-jujuy

JKenH

Ofgem is taking the view that further interconnector deployment could lead to higher electricity prices

Ofgem throws a spanner into GB’s interconnector ambitions

In March, Ofgem disappointed many by indicating that it is minded to reject all but one of the seven interconnector projects applying for authorisation under the cap and floor mechanism. The only project which makes the grade being the Tarchon (1.4 GW) between Britain and Germany. Ofgem is consulting on its position, with the consultation closing on 31 May. It is also minded to approve LionLink (1.8 GW), an “Offshore Hybrid Asset” (“OHA”) which would connect GB to both the Dutch power grid, and Dutch wind farms in the North

The industry has reacted negatively to the news, pointing out that the Government has ambitious targets for the deployment of interconnectors, but Ofgem is concerned that the next phase of interconnector deployment could result in higher electricity prices for GB consumers as there is a risk they will exacerbate grid constraints within the country.

https://watt-logic.com/2024/06/28/ofgem-throws-a-spanner-into-gbs-interconnector-ambitions/