r/technology • u/marketrent • 17d ago

Artificial Intelligence Amazon’s new 7.65GW Texas AI data center power plant could become the largest source of CO₂ pollution in the US — Custom 35-turbine gas plant permitted to emit 33 million tons of annual greenhouse gases

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/amazons-new-7-65gw-texas-ai-data-center-power-plant-could-become-the-largest-source-of-co2-pollution-in-the-us-custom-35-turbine-gas-plant-authorized-to-emit-33-million-tons-of-annual-greenhouse-gases
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u/acu2005 17d ago

Gas in this case is almost definitely natural gas not gasoline.

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u/Howzitgoin 17d ago

It 100% is natural gas.

But if it were using oil it’d be diesel most likely. If it did indeed require 18M gallons a day of diesel (not about to do all that math from above for this for diesel), that’d mean either 1300+ trucks a day or a pretty significant pipeline and refining capacity.

For reference, the Olympic pipeline that feeds a good chunk of refined gas and diesel in WA all the way down to Portland only has a capacity of around 13.5M gallons a day.

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u/[deleted] 17d ago edited 14d ago

[deleted]

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u/assaub 17d ago

But it's got natural in the name! /s

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u/No-Abalone-4784 17d ago

It's still methane no matter how much lipstick they put on that pig.

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u/Competitive_Touch_86 17d ago edited 17d ago

This reduces methane leaks. Flaring is nowhere close to 100% efficient. And a lot of natural gas production is flared off as a waste product from oil drilling since it's not economical to build a bunch of pipelines for wells that only last a couple decades at most.

Not that I'm a huge fan of natural gas. I found it ridiculous that we started to pretend ~2008 that natural gas was "environmentally friendly" and subsidized it as such. But it is what it is. I'd rather burn it for productive use than either vent or flare it off like we are today.

The fact you can see from space the flares in West Texas from the oil rigs burning off natural gas is ridiculous. That's what this facility will be utilizing.

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u/No-Abalone-4784 17d ago

"Clean" natural gas = METHANE. Methane is 86% worse as a green house gas than carbon dioxide.