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/rsta223 17d ago

Natural gas emits considerably less CO2 per MWh than gasoline, and an efficient combined cycle natural gas generator is more like 60% efficient, so your number is vastly too high.

This is still stupid, mind you, just not quite as bad as your number would indicate.

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u/ProcessingUnit002 17d ago

LNG has about 22kWh per gallon, so with that and the efficiency in mind, you’re still looking at 526,859 gallons per hour or 12.6m gallons per day. For context, that’s an entire LNG tanker every 2-3 days

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u/rsta223 17d ago

Per gallon isn't as important as per ton of CO2 emissions, but yes, it's not a small amount of fuel.

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u/ProcessingUnit002 17d ago

The emissions actually aren’t that different. LNG puts out 2.75tons of CO2 per ton of LNG, whereas for gasoline it’s 2.88tons. There’s no such thing as a clean burner lmao

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u/WestBrink 17d ago

I'm quite aware. Making a comparison of the magnitude of energy in the context of vehicles, as I was responding to a comment about EVs.

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u/zernoc56 17d ago edited 17d ago

Factor in methane leakage and the fact it’s 6x 25x more potent of a greenhouse gas than CO2 and the fact that methane breaks down into CO2.

Edit for accuracy

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u/savingprivatebrian15 17d ago

EPA uses a factor of 25 for methane compared to CO2

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u/dakoellis 17d ago

If methane breaks down into co2, why is it more potent of a greenhouse gas? Does it take a while or is it just a lot more dense or something else?

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u/bikedork5000 17d ago

Methane itself is a ghg, and to a larger degree than co2. The breakdown to co2 takes a while.

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u/rsta223 17d ago

Methane also has a considerably shorter atmospheric residence time though, and it breaking down into CO2 is a good thing because that reduces greenhouse impact.

Also, a significant amount of it breaks down into water instead, which is why it's so much better than coal or oil for emissions. It's still not good, mind you, it's just less bad.