Not just AI datacenters needing own power: Taiwanese server-maker Quanta has bought microgrids It's not just datacenters running AI that need their own energy sources. Taiwanese hardware manufacturer to the clouds Quanta has revealed the purchase of three sets of fuel cell microgrid systems to power one of its California plants, after purchasing two in April of this year. Quanta this week revealed it bought the fuel …
It's certainly a huge advantage that Big Tech can just sell them to private capital when they get older, and then they just go bust as soon as the plants reach their economic eol, walk away and leave some government superfund to clean up the mess. Good thing they don't really pay any tax so they won't have to fund even part of the clean up.
I think it will be monetary competition, exactly because of the nuclear option.
The US had the rest of the world by the cojones because they had to keep US currency reserves to buy energy, but now the petrodollar agreement has been terminated the Middle East is free to do exactly what caused the US to bomb Saddam: sell oil in other currencies (Saddam started to sell in Euro, which is what got him on the naughty list after originally been helped to power by the US). This will not change very soon (good for the US as otherwise their national debt becomes a massive problem), but energy needs are a major global economic driver.
Now for the fun part: China is ready to start building commercial Thorium plants after their experiment in the Gobi desert went well (a place a tad short on water for cooling, still worked OK) and they hold most of the patents because they invested the money to develop it to the point of even having Universities teaching this. All the variables that contribute to Thorium (abundance, low cost of mining and enrichment, > 99% fuel utilisation, low waste output, high levels of operational safety and short construction time so low cost of lending etc) suggest that once these plants become commercially available the cost of energy will drop considerably, but more importantly the currency for this may not be the US Dollar as quite a while back the World Bank also accepted the Chinese Renminbi as a reserve currency.
It is at that point that I worry the US will panic. And China is a tad too big to bomb..
That's what used to be called a Power Plant.
Can operate independently or as part of a grid? Check.
Can include multiple generator sets? Check
Can include multiple technologies? Check.
Can be very large or rather small? Check.
Must include voltage and frequency stabilization? Check
Bloom has latched onto a new buzzword, perhaps because everybody loves new technology, and nobody wants a power plant in their neighborhood.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
