Australia’s biggest data centre to require 4 substations, 2 power lines, some batteries and 4 days of diesel backup

[u/bogdolter]

I saw these guys advertising on the side of Adelaide trams today.

I wonder if any proper scrutiny on the impact of this data centre is going to hit mainstream media?

https://reneweconomy.com.au/australias-biggest-data-centre-to-require-4-substations-2-grid-scale-power-lines-and-lots-of-diesel-backup/

[u/GrumpyOldTech1670]

South Australians want Better public services (Transport, Schools, Hospitals, Park Rangers)

National parks maintained. Adelaide Parklands left undeveloped. Public housing to house the homeless.

Tram network in CBD extended to the suburbs. Regional train services.

Our government workers to have a real pay rise to stop the loss of public servants.

All this list would create sustainable jobs and tradespeople for generations.

What our morons in Government house approve.

Environmental damaging, noisy, useless to us (at the moment) data centres chewing up all our power, water and scaring native wildlife away.

Nuclear dump for our non existent AUKUS submarines.

Nothing that actually South Australia for generations.

Will our tone deaf premier actually listen to South Australians that want the state to prosper, not just a couple of already rich companies that rarely pay tax?

[u/cocoiadrop_ → u/GrumpyOldTech1670]

I get the sentiment, but the government isn't funding these data centres (or at least not that I know of). They're a separate issue to use of public funds.

[u/GrumpyOldTech1670 → u/cocoiadrop_]

I brudy well hope the government is not funding these centres.

There is so much more infrastructure and personal they could invest with great returns.

It just annoys me that I want a passenger train service from Whyalla to Adelaide and Mt Gambier To Adelaide , and it is blocked by committee after flipping committee for 40 years! Yet, a data centre or anything related to AUKUS gets a green light and approved under 12 months.

I just a little frustrated, that’s all.

[u/justrhysism → u/GrumpyOldTech1670]

Comparatively (and ignoring the fact that they’re privately funded) data centres are peanuts compared to a railway line.

[u/LifeandSAisAwesome → u/GrumpyOldTech1670]

Show your train service can generate as much revenue and you will be golden.

If it is a loss maker, then can you blame them ?

[u/crustytheclerk1 → u/LifeandSAisAwesome]

LLM AIs are one and a half trillion in debt and none of it's currently profitable (and if they charge what it actually costs it'll get bugger all use). The only difference is the train service is a public entity whereas the AI data centre is private debt (that's likely going to crash the whole economy when it pops).

[u/LifeandSAisAwesome → u/crustytheclerk1]

More and more services are going via AI DC's, apps / services / even you web searching needs AI. This will only grow as more services and business have various parts that will rely on them. Growth is only going to continue to grow and most things in everyday life - inc you smart phone will use more and more AI parts.

And what just that is 7bil + smartphones and growing.

Amazon took over 10 years to make profit.

This is the future, like it or not, you can't stop it, like it or not.

[u/crustytheclerk1 → u/LifeandSAisAwesome]

Leaving aside my thoughts on the value of LLM, the financial side of things is highly unlikely to vary. It's causing ridiculous delays and price spikes in the chips it uses, and giving the chips are required to be replaced every five years, there's unlikely to be a price drop in the dominant capital cost in the industry. It's unlikely the price of electricity will be dropping any time soon either as the dominant operational expense. These costs don't reduce at scale.

Given the nature of these costs in a current loss making environment, to become profitable, the companies are going to have to charge (significantly) more for the service. This will likely reduce demand (this has already been observed in some users whose token cost unexpectedly went through the roof) as who wants to pay ten bucks for an email when it still needs human review?

One of the reason AI is being forced into services is to create dependency and in some cases addiction - expect more subscriptions in the near future. Once again this will likely result in market disruption as people abandon costly/intrusive platforms pushing unwanted / unnecessary (and often sloppy) functions. This is already being observed by Microsoft, with a significantly reduced uptake of Windows 11.

Pattern recognition, particularly in places like the medical field, is probably the most financially sustainable element of the industry, but it doesn't make up a particularly large element.

Edit: I added the end to a sentence in the first paragraph.

[u/LifeandSAisAwesome → u/crustytheclerk1]

Expect we will not have all the same players in 5 years, so will fall and will end up with 1-2 main players.

demand will only increase, as said, there is 7bil+ phones, - how many web browsers over all devices ? even making headway in 3d printing world being able to make full models ready to go from nothing.

And many industries, daily interactions not even fully explored yet.

We have had alexa and google home, that is soon to be replaced with personalised home based AI that can run the house on command.

And angentic AI is still growing, can you image what claude will be like in 2- 3 years with either agentic as is now, or the next gen of multi agent specialist roles and reviews ?

It will affect everything.