#waterconsumption — Public Fediverse posts

https://www.europesays.com/people/216910/ ChatGPT vs almond? Sam Altman says ChatGPT uses as much water as an almond – the internet isn’t buying it | #AIEnvironmentalImpact #EnvironmentalFootprintOfAI #OpenAI #SamAltman #WaterConsumption

Double harvest: #raspberries and #RenewableEnergy - #FruitLogistica

Excerpts: "Based on current findings, strawberries do not thrive under #SolarPanels, so this combination of crops does not have a promising future. This was the conclusion of a Wageningen University study on fruit cultivation beneath #photovoltaic systems.

Strawberries grown beneath solar panels with 25 to 50 per cent light transmission experienced a significant drop in yield – by 25 to 30 per cent.

The situation was quite different for raspberries, however: under solar panels with 40 per cent light transmission, the harvest yield fell by only five per cent, and the quality of the fruit remained unchanged. At the same time, the panels reduced evaporation and water consumption, protecting the berries from burns and heat peaks.

The scientists also expect positive effects on #WaterConsumption and protection against #ExtremeWeather conditions.

[...]

One clear advantage is that raspberries are currently grown under rain protection films that have to be replaced every five to seven years. This equates to a significant amount of plastic that would no longer be required if solar modules were used instead. And they last at least ten years."

Full article:
https://www.fruitlogistica.com/en/blog/double-harvest-raspberries-and-renewable-energy.html

#SolarPunkSunday #SolarFarms #Solar #RenewableEnergy #RenewablesNow #Agrosolar #Agrovoltaics #SolarPanelAgriculture #SolarOnFarms #SolarEnergy

Tribune editorial: The voice of the people has pushed #Utah leaders to stop and think about massive #DataCenter. Keep it up.

This is an issue that has united people across the political spectrum.

By The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board
| May 22, 2026

"The fear that a ginormous, water-guzzling, air-befouling, weather-modifying data center planned for Utah’s northwest corner was a done deal seems to be easing just a bit. It’s not hard to see why.

A handful of key state officials are now promising that, before the project actually gets built — if it ever does — the appropriate environmental reviews, with opportunities for public comment, will happen.

"That doesn’t mean that the people who have stood up to what appeared to be a pre-greased mega-project can rest easy. Vigilance and activism are what have worked so far, and will be necessary going forward. As long and exhausting as that process might be.

"It will take a lot of continual public outcry to counterbalance the monied interests pouring campaign contributions into the coffers of Utah Senate President #StuartAdams and other powerful worthies who have been pushing the plan.

"Few Utahns had any inkling that a little-known state agency called the Military Installation Development Authority (#MIDA), which Adams chairs, had put its weight behind the #StratosProject, a proposed data center that would, at full build-out, generate and consume twice as much electricity as the whole state of Utah.

"The Box Elder County Commission had to sign off on the project before the MIDA board could take over all land-use, water, energy, environmental and tax-abatement authority over the 40,000-acre project — immune from any democratic oversight.
Get Inside Voices newsletter. A weekly collection of ideas, perspectives and solutions from across Utah.

"Despite loud public objections, online and in person, commissioners did exactly that. Given that the land is privately owned, not part of any city and not zoned for any particular use, commissioners argued they really didn’t have the power to stop it.

"But others do."

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/editorial/2026/05/22/tribune-editorial-public-outcry/

#UtahPol #KevinOLeary #WaterConsumption #HeatPollution #ResistDatacenters #WaterIsLife #ThermalPollution #HeatGeneration
#Drought #GreatSaltLake
#Environment #EnvironmentalCatastrophe #Datacenters #DatacentersSuck
#SharkTank #AISucks

Not to mention all the #WaterConsumption! There are plans to restart aging nuclear reactor as well as untested SMR reactors! Will #AI’s huge energy demands spur a #nuclear renaissance?

By Davide Castelvecchi
25 October 2024

Do small modular reactors carry extra risks?

"In some cases, small modular reactors 'could actually push nuclear power in a more dangerous direction', says #EdwinLyman. 'Advanced isn’t always better.'

"In particular, Lyman points out that the pebble-bed designs drawn up by #XEnergy and #Kairos would rely on high-assay low-enriched #uranium (#HALEU), which comprises 10–20% uranium-235 — compared with the 5% enrichment level required by most existing reactors (and by #NuScale’s reactor). HALEU is still classified as low-enrichment fuel (as opposed to the highly enriched uranium used to make nuclear bombs), but that distinction is misleading, Lyman says. In June, he and his collaborators — including physicist Richard Garwin, who led the design of the first hydrogen bomb — warned in a Science article that a bomb could be built with a few hundred kilograms of HALEU, with no need for further enrichment.

"Smaller reactors are also likely to produce more nuclear waste and to use fuel less efficiently, according to work reported in 2022 by Macfarlane and her collaborators. In a full-size reactor, most of the neutrons produced by the splitting of uranium travel through a large volume of fuel, meaning that they have a high probability of hitting another nucleus, rather than colliding with the walls of the reactor vessel or escaping into the surrounding building. 'When you shrink the reactor, there’s less material in there, so you will have more neutron leakage,' Macfarlane says. These rogue neutrons can be absorbed by other atomic nuclei — which would then themselves become radioactive."

Original article:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03490-3

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/mODpF#selection-952.0-991.164

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Cryptocurrency #DataCenters #RethinkNotRestart #NoNukesForAI #NoNukes #NuclearHype #NeutronEmbrittlement #NuclearWaste #NotCarbonFree