The data centres of the future
Jupiter
While half the German cabinet is travelling to Jülich, Germany, to inaugurate a new supercomputer Jupiter, which ranks fourth on the Exascale Top 500 list with a power consumption of 17MW, the hyperscalers are getting down to business when it comes to monopoly policy. In Jülich, 24,000 GH200 Grace Hopper superchips from NVIDIA are being installed, naturally also for AI and LLMs. All these ideas make sense, but one of the most nonsensical applications of graphics cards and their derivatives is AI. Weather forecasts, CO2-free power supply and energy savings in air traffic are already areas of research that sound applicable and whose significance is obvious. Astrophysics and quark-gluon plasmas are interesting, but I’m more interested in whether I can get through the winter with solar energy, battery storage and a heat pump.
Norway
Meanwhile, Google is building a data centre near Skien in Norway, which is expected to consume 860 MW in its final stage of expansion. The output will be ramped up gradually from 20 MW at the beginning of 2026 to 120 MW and finally to the final stage in 2030. While air cooling with 30° waste heat will be used at the beginning, a tunnel pipeline to a nearby lake is planned as soon as the waste heat for AI requires more cooling capacity. This waste heat in the middle of an uninhabited area is being generously offered free of charge, but there are no takers in sight. Anyone who has always wanted to grow pineapples close to the Arctic Circle can now heat their greenhouses for free near Skien.
Impact on electricity prices
860 MW is 50 times more than Jupiter’s consumption. This data centre will have an impact on the energy supply in Norway and Northern Europe. High-voltage power lines and a substation are currently being planned and built to accommodate this output. 860 MW corresponds to 5% of the country’s total electricity consumption. As a result, Norway will be able to export less or no energy. This will cause electricity prices in Scandinavia and northern Germany to rise.
United Kingdom
At the same time, hyperscalers in the United Kingdom are announcing the construction of further data centres. Google and the British government are agreeing on a new partnership in science and technology, cooperation in the civil use of nuclear energy and armaments. Microsoft is not far behind, promising £30 billion for AI, including 23,000 NVidia graphics cards. Nuclear energy in the UK has left behind a financial disaster of €12.9 billion with Hinkley Point C, not including the costs of disposing of nuclear waste. Anyone who is counting on small medium reactors is bound to be disappointed. All projects in this direction have failed so far.
Jobs?
Anyone who thinks that data centres create permanent jobs will unfortunately have to learn better from Bloomberg. While While thousands of jobs are created during the construction of data centres, hardly any staff are needed to operate them. None of these projects has any real benefit for the citizens of these countries or for digital sovereignty. On the contrary, the fact that hardly any taxes are paid means that dependence is taking on colonial proportions. None of these data centres are close enough to industrial facilities to support Europe’s real strength, high-quality industrial production.
Conclusion
Instead of focusing on its strengths and finally making optical chips ready for large-scale production, a sycophantic policy of anticipatory obedience is being pursued. Perhaps the value is great enough to convince the US rulers to defend Europe effectively. We should not rely on that. Each of these buildings is a prime military target and easy to attack with drones.
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Photo credits Wikipedia Google Data Center, Council Bluffs Iowa, Licence CC BY 2.0 Deed
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)