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I think what has happened at quite a few data centers is bad planning and execution. So yes if you are just running power from the grid there will be minimal noise or pollution. But if you were a bit blase about grid electricity and just trying to get in on the boom, then you need to setup onsite power generation. Which usually takes the form of fossil fuel generators. Which are not quiet. And if you mess up you are spilling pollution as well, because you are basically running an industrial scale power generation facility without the planning or expertise that is usually deployed to run such a thing.
The other thing is that people want their money and their payoff. The perception of data centers is that they generate money for someone somewhere else. And if it comes up as a political question, ya of course people want their cut.
Railroads did have an issue if they just wanted to build through a town without adding a stop inside that town. Having a stop brought benefits, just using the land to run the rail through was not well liked.
From some articles I've seen local
bribescompensation seems be the way forward.Hope someone figures out nuclear SMRs to power these things. But then would SMRs get up and running by the time Elon exports all the compute into space?
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