Monticello Data Center – Part 3
This is part of a series of blog posts about the Monticello data center. It is frustrating to see the massive amount of misinformation that is being spread by the undisclosed entities who are pushing for the data center. Of course, it makes sense that they are doing this, because if the Monticello data center does not go through, they will lose millions of dollars.
Now, the focus is on how much water the Monticello data center will use. That issue is being debated to the exclusion of all others. Of course, this is a trick. The proponents believe (and they might be right) that if they can “win” the water argument, then the opposition to the data center will fade away, and we will forget about all the other reasons why the Monticello Data Center is a horrible idea for all of us who are not billionaire tech bros living in California, New York, or Hong Kong.
Just so we don’t forget, here are a few of the many reasons why the Monticello Data Center is simply a horrible idea for everyone out here:
1. First and foremost, it will change us. It will be a source of constant stress, and it will change who we are and how we act towards our neighbors.
2. It will rob people of the investments they have made in their homes, their schools, and their communities.
3. It brings massive industrialization. It will be the size of 50 football fields and will look like an industrial slum in Communist Europe in the 1970s. Photos of proposed data centers show rows of buildings that are pristine white. After a year or two of snow, rain, and dust and mud, the Monticello data centers will be a filthy gray color.
4. Property values in the area are already going down. They will continue to go down.
5. It will bring noise pollution, heat pollution, and light pollution. We will not be able to see the stars in the sky at night.
6. It will cause electric and water bills to increase dramatically throughout Wright County, not just in Monticello.
7. It will use 300 megawatts of electricity every hour. The Monticello power plant generates a little over 600 megawatts of electricity every hour, and most of that is in use. They don’t have very much extra electricity. So, the electricity will come from the grid, and the utility will use eminent domain to install 345 MVA power lines throughout Wright County and neighboring counties.
NOW – LET’S TALK ABOUT WATER.
AI Data centers are not like data storage centers. Once data is stored on a computer hard drive, or on a flash drive, or in a data storage center, nothing happens to it until it is accessed. That doesn’t take much in the way of resources.
An AI Data Center is like a huge computer that is running all the time. Computing is a physical process that produces a by-product. It’s like steam locomotive that burns wood. Part of the by-product is heat and part of the by-product is ashes
The by-product of an AI Data Center is heat. One megawatt of electricity is converted to one megawatt of heat (they are called “joules”). If the heat is not disposed of, it will melt the mother board.
This is a matter of physics, and the laws of physics are not going to change. This is why a moratorium makes no sense. Heat needs to be disposed of now, and heat will need to be disposed of when the six month or one year moratorium is over. Nothing about computing and heat generation gets “fixed” during a moratorium. Again, the laws of physics are not going to change.
Forget about “guidelines.” What guidelines? Guidelines are talked about by politicians who owe allegiance to their union and construction friends, and who are willing to trade their chance to obtain power and prestige for the interests of the people whom they are supposed to represent.
There are basically three ways of getting rid of heat: air cooling, water cooling, or a combination of the two. Air cooling works for your laptop and your desktop, but it will not work for a massive data center. Air is about 50 times less efficient at removing heat than water. Air cooling requires giant fans, and in the summer, it requires giant air conditioners. These need lots of electricity and they make lots of noise.
Water cooling uses evaporation towers. Water circulates near the motherboards and absorbs heat. This is moved to an evaporation tower, where it is sprayed down towards huge fans that evaporate it. The hot water is converted to water vapor, which goes out into the atmosphere as steam.
One problem with evaporation towers is that the minerals in the water do not evaporate. They accumulate on the fans and the system and need to be cleaned regularly. This is why, a few years ago, the Monticello city counsel approved improvements to the city water supply, and why the Minnesota legislature has approved almost 20 million dollars for those improvements. The improvements were mostly to remove manganese from the water supply, even though the current amount of manganese is well below federal guidelines. Manganese is bad for evaporation towers, and if you are paying attention, you will realize that this project has been in the works for several years.
Water cooling will use an estimated 3 million to 6 million gallons of water per day. Each megawatt of electricity uses about 10,000 to 12,000 gallons of water to remove the heat. This water comes from the water table that extends for miles below Monticello. This will dry up Wright County. Streams, ponds and swamps will disappear within a year.
So, the developers are now proposing a hybrid cooling system, sort of like a giant anti-freeze radiator, which they say will use 78,000 gallons of water per day. This is B.S.
The anti-freeze still needs to be cooled. So, there will need to be even more fans and air conditioners, and this means more noise and more electricity being generated and used. And in the summer when ambient temperatures are in the 90s or 100s, it will be next to impossible to cool the anti-freeze efficiently. Again, this is because of physics, and the laws of physics are not going to change after a moratorium.
This is where the sleight of hand comes in. First, the city council is dealing with the developer, not the end user. To ensure that the end user does not convert to evaporation towers, the requirement of hybrid cooling needs to run with the land. It needs to be part of a new legal description. A contract between the developer and the city council is not adequate, especially since contracts can be tossed out by bankruptcy courts.
Otherwise, once the end user acquires the property, it is going to do whatever it wants to do, with little or no meaningful consequences. This means they will convert to evaporation towers that use 3 million to 6 million gallons of groundwater per day, because this is the cheapest way to do it.