This op-ed, written by Rocky Mountain Institute transmission advocacy fellow Ben Adams, was originally published by Harvard Public Health on November 4th.
In June, the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce made a surprise announcement that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, would be building “the world’s largest supercomputer facility” in Memphis. Within days, people who live near the new facility began sounding the alarms. They were concerned about the risks it poses to public health—in their own community and beyond.
It’s not hard to understand why Memphis, or other cities like it, would want an xAI computing facility built within its limits. Musk is lauded as a pioneer in clean energy—a leader in electric vehicles, electric charging infrastructure, and most recently, in deploying solar and energy storage. xAI’s Memphis facility is one of many AI data centers being built across the country—increasing energy demand at a time when the federal government is supporting new infrastructure and growth in clean electricity through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. These new centers promise good-paying modern jobs, as well as an opportunity to put new clean energy to work.
But these promises come true only if growth is handled the right way. AI data centers have been criticized by environmentalists for their carbon dioxide emissions, dangerous waste byproducts, and extraordinary demands on our electricity and water systems. One estimate holds that global AI infrastructure will soon use six times as much water as the nation of Denmark, and another that more than 30 percent of Ireland’s electricity will be devoted to AI computing centers by 2026.
So far, the Memphis project is not a model of how to do much more than move fast and break things. As NPR recently detailed, critics are concerned the tool “has fewer rules than other AI chatbots and has been known for creating controversial deepfake images, such as Mickey Mouse as a Nazi and Kamala Harris in lingerie,” as well as more indifference to curbing misinformation.
And that’s just the technology; the physical impact of the facility has also caused concern. It’s being built in South Memphis, known for both historically Black neighborhoods and poor air quality. It will place significant demands on the city’s electricity and water systems, and the impacts on both could harm residents.
To address these problems, xAI has made only promises—to coordinate with the city’s electric and water utility on a greywater facility and to install at least 50 megawatts (MW) of large battery storage facilities. So far, the promises aren’t plans; they’re talking points on a one-page factsheet, which lacks any mention of a timetable or detailed construction plan. And there are few avenues for accountability: The company has held no public meetings, nor communicated directly with the media. City officials signed nondisclosure agreements in order to engage xAI in negotiations to bring the plant to Memphis.
A map used in a presentation by MLGW at a July 9 Memphis City Council meeting to indicate some of the ways that xAI will use utilities. MGLW via MLK50
Meanwhile, the project perpetuates the problems caused by decades of reactive management: higher prices for customers, a growing number of power outages, a lack of consideration for the people impacted by the new construction, and more. And while new power lines and water facilities are sorely needed in Memphis and elsewhere, the fact remains that work like this causes pollution.
In fact, xAI has already begun polluting—without the necessary permits, according to local environmental groups—in a neighborhood already burdened by legacy pollution from a coal power plant. And the supercomputer in question, Colossus, is already online, according to Musk’s social media account. If, as environmentalists fear, the plant affects the water supply, then the whole city will be harmed.
Still, it’s not too late for some meaningful relief to those impacted. For one thing, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or more likely its Tennessee counterpart, TDEC, can and should immediately require xAI to stop burning gas until it has been issued appropriate permits.
Looking ahead, proactive grid planning could work more transparently to identify sites where projects like these would be less burdensome, or even more beneficial. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which supplies and regulates power in Memphis, has ultimate authority over whether and how to deliver the 150 MW of electricity xAI is asking to draw from the grid. This gives the TVA unique leverage: It has an opportunity to call for planning that considers the electric, environmental justice, and public health impacts of high-consumption projects. As other data centers go up around the country, local utilities will have their own chances to follow suit.
More broadly, construction and other industrial activities at Musk’s facility should be stopped until the community has been given a voice—through open processes conducted by state or local offices with authority over electricity planning (TVA), water system planning (MLGW), or environmental safety (TDEC). Subverting or ignoring these processes has already led to public outcry, but the true downsides—weaker infrastructure and higher rates of pollution, illness, and other maladies—can still be avoided.
Perhaps, as we all hope, this project will be a boon for the city, growing its economy and making it a technology hub—and a worthy model for future similar projects. But it won’t work if it breaks the rules. The AI boom needs infrastructure—water, power, people—to launch a brighter future. Taking shortcuts won’t make this happen—it will just make things easier for the rich and powerful, with the rest of us left to pay the cost.
The post It’s not too late for TVA and Elon Musk to take Memphis’s environmental health seriously appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
It’s not too late for TVA and Elon Musk to take Memphis’s environmental health seriously
Weather Guard Lightning Tech
Vineyard Wind Sues GE Vernova, US Monopile Factory Bankrupt
Allen covers EEW American Offshore Structures’ Chapter 11 filing, Vineyard Wind suing GE Vernova for $545 million, Europe’s exit from Korea, and wind project wins in Australia and Canada.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
There is a story unfolding across this industry right now. It is a story of two worlds. One world is closing its doors. The other is throwing them wide open.
Let us start in New Jersey. EEW American Offshore Structures filed for Chapter Eleven bankruptcy on April eighth. This was the first monopile manufacturing facility ever built in the United States. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced a two hundred fifty million dollar investment in the Paulsboro Marine Terminal back in twenty twenty. It was called the largest industrial offshore wind investment in the country at the time. At full buildout… five hundred thousand square feet of production space. More than one hundred monopiles per year. Five hundred workers. They even built the first American-made monopile… for Orsted’s Ocean Wind project. It weighed three million pounds. It measured three hundred feet long.
Then Orsted canceled Ocean Wind One and Two. Then Shell pulled out of Atlantic Shores. Without contracted work… workers disassembled and recycled finished monopiles for scrap. Federal policy shifts removed the pipeline of future projects. A landlord eviction filing followed. And then… Chapter Eleven. That is a two hundred fifty million dollar facility… with nowhere left to go.
Now stay with us. Because just offshore… another American offshore wind story is fighting for its life. Vineyard Wind… the sixty-two turbine project fifteen miles south of Martha’s Vineyard… filed suit in Massachusetts against GE Renewables. GE Vernova says Vineyard Wind owes it three hundred million dollars for work already performed… and it wants to walk away at the end of April. Vineyard Wind says not so fast.
The developer says GE still owes five hundred forty-five million dollars for what it calls inexcusably poor performance after a catastrophic turbine blade collapse in July of twenty twenty-four. Fiberglass blade fragments washed onto Nantucket beaches during peak tourist season. Sixty-eight of seventy-two blades had to be removed and replaced. That set the project back nearly two years. Construction did reach completion in March… making Vineyard Wind the first offshore project to finish under the current administration. But now the only contractor capable of completing the remaining work… wants out. A court hearing was scheduled for Thursday.
And now… look eastward. Something similar is playing out in Korea. European offshore wind companies are exiting the Korean market one by one. Corio Generation, a British firm owned by Macquarie, disbanded its Korean unit and pulled out of joint projects in Busan and Ulsan. Germany’s RWE quit offshore wind projects in Taean and Sinan counties. Vestas postponed its turbine factory in Mokpo… indefinitely. Equinor began reducing its Korean workforce. Shell exited the Korean offshore market entirely in twenty twenty-four.
These companies point to worsening global profitability… and Korean government policies they say favor domestic companies over firms with greater experience. Korea had a target of three gigawatts of offshore wind by twenty thirty. That goal is now in serious doubt.
But here is where the story turns. Not every market is closing its door. Eight thousand miles from New Jersey… in the Sunshine State of Queensland, Australia… the final forty-one turbines just arrived at the Wambo wind project. Cubico Sustainable Investments and Stanwell are building a five hundred six megawatt project on the Darling Downs. Stage One… two hundred fifty-two megawatts… already feeding the Queensland grid. Stage Two deliveries are now complete. Commissioning and full operations are on track for the end of twenty twenty-six.
And up in Ontario, Canada… the province just approved fourteen new wind and solar projects totaling more than thirteen hundred megawatts. The average price… eight point eight cents per kilowatt hour. Compare that to twenty-one point four cents for some proposed nuclear projects… and more than thirty-two cents for certain new reactor designs. Contracts run for twenty years, with all projects online before twenty thirty.
So let us step back. In New Jersey… the first American monopile factory files for bankruptcy. Off Massachusetts… a completed offshore wind farm fights to keep its contractor. In Korea… European developers pack their bags. But in Australia… turbines arrive on schedule. And in Canada… wind power undercuts nuclear at the meter.
The wind energy industry is not in retreat. It is choosing its battlegrounds. And where the conditions are right… the blades are turning.
And now you know… the rest of the story.
That is the state of the wind industry for the 13th of April, twenty twenty-six. Join us for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast tomorrow.
Did Jennifer Lawrence really say this? I hope not, because it’s complete stupidity.
People who didn’t criticize Hitler, Mussolini, or the dozens of other fascist dictators as they were rising to power merely ushered them into a position in which they could destroy the lives of millions of innocent lives.
The author of the meme at left writes, “We’re the only ones.”
This is completely incorrect, not that you care about facts and truth. Over 30 countries, primarily in the Americas, offer unconditional birthright citizenship, granting citizenship to almost anyone born within their territory, regardless of their parents’ status.
Oil Tycoon Funds Far-Right Candidate Challenging Texas Oilfield Regulator
Sustainability In Your Ear: Author Michael Maniates on Why Green Shopping Isn’t Enough
Data Center Boom Reaches West Georgia, Raising Questions Amid Mounting Opposition
-
Climate Change8 months ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Greenhouse Gases8 months ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Greenhouse Gases2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change2 years ago
Bill Discounting Climate Change in Florida’s Energy Policy Awaits DeSantis’ Approval
-
Climate Change2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change Videos2 years ago
The toxic gas flares fuelling Nigeria’s climate change – BBC News
-
Renewable Energy6 months agoSending Progressive Philanthropist George Soros to Prison?
-
Carbon Footprint2 years agoUS SEC’s Climate Disclosure Rules Spur Renewed Interest in Carbon Credits