I have truly never understood how solar-maxis intend to deal with this reality; I expect there to be data centers 100 times this nameplate power draw in the nearish future. What you see below is 100mw.
The response I usually get is "America has a lot of land," which is just bleak. Indeed, it turns *me* into a doomer, invoking as it does the notion of machines papering over our soil (which powers us) to power themselves.
And it's not just data centers. In a world with electric freight trucks, a *truck stop* might require as much solar as you see pictured here, if not much more. A truck stop!
Solar is fine; I do not have a principled opposition to it (which I do to eg wind). But solar's lack of energy density makes the solar-maximalist future a "loser premise," to borrow a phrase--at least it is a "loser premise" for human dignity.
The good version of the future is of course a mix of many energy sources, but with a heavy bent toward fusion/fission and geothermal.
Andrew Côté@Andercot
This is the footprint ratio of data center to solar panels in the sunniest country in the world. Yeah, I think we're gonna have to go nuclear.
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