More from All the latest updates on AI data centers
The state’s utility board approved an 8 percent rate hike to increase energy production for data centers, while Navajo Nation residents live without electricity, writes The Washington Post:
But it rejected a plan to bring electricity to parts of the Navajo Nation land ... because of “concerns about how the funds would be used,” adding that customers are not “responsible for extending electricity to all tribal areas of the state.”
[The Washington Post]
As AI companies vie for more processing power, Meta announced its largest data center yet in Richland Parish, Louisiana. Construction will start in December and will continue through 2030.
Elon Musk’s xAI has a rapidly growing supercomputer that other AI companies are worried about, The Information reports. Hopefully, they also find out how the facility affects the local environment.
[The Information]
Utility planning documents show rising costs for customers in some regions of the US as tech companies build out energy-hungry data centers, the Washington Post reports:
“A lot of governors and local political leaders who wanted economic growth and vitality from these data centers are now realizing it can come at a cost of increased consumer bills,” said Neil Chatterjee, former chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
[The Washington Post]
It popped up quickly with little transparency around its potential impact on the power grid, air quality, or water resources, local advocates say. The Elon Musk-led company is reportedly running gas generators without a proper permit. Local utility officials reportedly signed NDAs.
“We have been deemed by xAI not even valuable enough to have a conversation with,” says KeShaun Pearson, who grew up a few miles from the facility and is president of the local nonprofit Memphis Community Against Pollution. “To not even be included in conversations about what is transpiring in our own backyards.”
The Elon Musk-led company is allegedly running gas turbines without the proper permit at a data center in Memphis, TN. Local environmental groups are reportedly urging regulators to investigate.
They’re worried about nitrogen oxides (NOx), smog-forming pollution that can aggravate respiratory illness.
