Microsoft Builds New Green Data Centers in Wyoming, Invests in Wifi, Education, Roads (microsoft.com) 43
This week a Microsoft blog post announced they're opening two new data centers in Cheyenne, "built with sustainable design and operations in mind, contributing to Microsoft's commitment to being carbon negative."
Our current and new datacenters will use adiabatic cooling, which uses outside air instead of water for cooling when temperatures are below 85 degrees Fahrenheit. This process uses less electricity and up to 90 percent less water than other water-based cooling systems. We've already invested over $500K in sustainability grants to local organizations that help preserve Wyoming's natural environment including Crow Creek Revival that aims to promote, enhance, restore, and revitalize the region's key watershed.
Building the data centers will also create 700 jobs "during peak construction," Microsoft adds. And they're also "investing in new water, sewer, and road infrastructure to create easier access to Bison Business Park, which will also support the growth of new businesses in Wyoming."
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp shares more details: "I appreciate Microsoft's commitment to Wyoming and thank them for the benefits they have brought to multiple sectors of our economy," said Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon. "The incentives that set this train in motion are working."
Sergio Loureiro, VP of Core Operations for Microsoft's Datacenters, suggested that Wyoming's children are also benefiting from the incentives and data center tax exemptions: "We've partnered with the Wyoming Department of Education to host ongoing computer science training for more than 30 school districts across the state," Loureiro explained, "impacting more than 60,000 K-12 students.
"We're also collaborating with [Microsoft-backed] Code.org and the University of Wyoming to build the capacity of hundreds of K12 teachers to offer computer science education to thousands of students across the state. Microsoft's TEALS high school computer science program has also partnered with six Wyoming high schools to build high-quality computer science education for approximately 500 students in Laramie, Gillette, Douglas, Casper, and Buffalo."
Microsoft also says they're investing over $350,000 to launch free WiFi at key community locations "helping more than 100,000 visitors and residents annually stay connected" — plus over a million dollars to launch three adult upskilling programs.
Building the data centers will also create 700 jobs "during peak construction," Microsoft adds. And they're also "investing in new water, sewer, and road infrastructure to create easier access to Bison Business Park, which will also support the growth of new businesses in Wyoming."
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp shares more details: "I appreciate Microsoft's commitment to Wyoming and thank them for the benefits they have brought to multiple sectors of our economy," said Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon. "The incentives that set this train in motion are working."
Sergio Loureiro, VP of Core Operations for Microsoft's Datacenters, suggested that Wyoming's children are also benefiting from the incentives and data center tax exemptions: "We've partnered with the Wyoming Department of Education to host ongoing computer science training for more than 30 school districts across the state," Loureiro explained, "impacting more than 60,000 K-12 students.
"We're also collaborating with [Microsoft-backed] Code.org and the University of Wyoming to build the capacity of hundreds of K12 teachers to offer computer science education to thousands of students across the state. Microsoft's TEALS high school computer science program has also partnered with six Wyoming high schools to build high-quality computer science education for approximately 500 students in Laramie, Gillette, Douglas, Casper, and Buffalo."
Microsoft also says they're investing over $350,000 to launch free WiFi at key community locations "helping more than 100,000 visitors and residents annually stay connected" — plus over a million dollars to launch three adult upskilling programs.
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Success attracts bloated government, which grows up around it like like moss on a tree.
Then it declares itself the cause of the success.
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I have a better idea. We put you in a tank with a jellyfish and you two have a battle of wits. My bet's on the jellyfish.
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Second is the implication that CS education is somehow preferable even to other science and technology disciplines, never mind the much-shat-upon but sorely needed Humanities studies.
If only the Humanities would actually teach, rather than inducting into a cult [city-journal.org] (search for "lens" for the relevant paragraph).
We've had a professor here get a "lifetime achievement award" for forty years of writing books and articles she herself classifies as "post-fact". I say that's betrayal of academia; it certainly has nothing to do with science whatsoever.
Yes, basic competence with computers, along with at least rudimentary programming skills, are helpful and possibly necessary.
Maybe, maybe not. One could well argue that the requirement of "programming skills" is a failure of the programmers to turn the computer, a general
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The use of pencils and standard ballpoint pens is a major factor in this. Both require the writer to use the hand to apply pressure to paper in order to create lines. It changes the work from “create legible writing with as little movement as possible” to “create legible writing with as little ink as possible”, simply due to fatigue. With a ballpoint or pencil, you are going to have a sore hand and for
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But what about chemistry?
I learned both chemistry and programming.
Programming is a thousand times more useful in my life.
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But what about chemistry?
I learned both chemistry and programming.
Programming is a thousand times more useful in my life.
Walter White would differ...
Seriously, usefulness is relative; the one time you really need a piece of knowledge may outweigh all the times you regualarly used anotehr...
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Second is the implication that CS education is somehow preferable even to other science and technology disciplines, never mind the much-shat-upon but sorely needed Humanities studies. Yes, basic competence with computers, along with at least rudimentary programming skills, are helpful and possibly necessary.
My guess it won't be CS skills but program languages that get taught. Unless you have educators who understand and can teach how to actually design a program, rather than merely teach another language where you learn the words and syntax, is like thinking 4 years of high school Spanish enables someone to write Don Quixote. They know the words and grammar but do not understand the underlying structure and design.
Haha ha ha funny! (Score:2)
Mmm... warm & fuzzy =))) (Score:3)
This joint announcement by Microsoft & Wyoming's governor makes me feel soooo warm & fuzzy. I can't tell whether I'm dreaming or awake.
Where's the electricity for the data centres coming from, 'green' coal? https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid... [eia.gov]
And what on the Wyoming school curricula do they propose to replace with Code.org classes & how will that help students to secure places at colleges & universities? How much do universities & colleges value Code.org credentials?
And that continuing professional development (CPD) for hundreds of teachers, who will that benefit? What curricula-oriented CPD will teachers be missing in order to attend Code.org?
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Where's the electricity for the data centres coming from, 'green' coal?
If they want to get to carbon negative then the electricity will have to come from nuclear fission, at least in part. Nuclear fission has the lowest CO2 emissions of any energy source available today: https://ourworldindata.org/saf... [ourworldindata.org]
If Microsoft can't make mention of nuclear power in their green-washing BS PR announcements then that's a sign to me that it is in fact green-washing PR BS and not a plan to get to carbon negative. Maybe they have a carbon negative plan, a real one that includes nuclear fissi
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The annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report is the product of Mycle Schneider, an anti-nuclear activist. The report is not from the nuclear power industry, it is about the nuclear power industry from an outside observer. This is far from an unbiased data based report.
If you look at the author's website ( http://www.mycleschneider.com/ [mycleschneider.com] ) you will see that he was an advisor to the French environmental minister, but France is building nuclear power plants. If the French government knows something we
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We're in a race against time to get low carbon energy sources online as quickly as possible. Nuclear is many times slower & more expensive than wind & solar
Reminds me of an old engineering joke... We don't have the time to do it right so we have to make the time to do it twice. Dr. David MacKay shows us quite definitively that the wind and solar solution will not work. Those going down the wind and solar path are not doing it right, so they will have to do it twice. Doing it over takes far more time than doing it right in the first place.
not to mention the risk of building nuclear reactors on a low budget & in a hurry. That's not something anyone should rush.
If these people weren't in such a hurry to do it wrong then they would not have to be in a hurry to do it again later. I
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Wyoming already has a deal with Bill Gates's Terrapower [atomicinsights.com] to retrofit coal plants to use fission to run the existing generator turbines. Reusing the old generators save a tidy chunk of capital.
I'd bet real money that the location of this new data center is right up the road from the first coal plant that is getting upgraded.
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There is a deal to build a test plant that will supplement electricity production when two coal units are taken offline at the Naughton power plant to see if it is economically feasible to do so. Whether this translates to retrofiting all the plants if it does is an unknown. Kemmerer, WY is across the state W-E from Cheyenne where the data centers will be built. 342.3 miles - so "up the road" if you're from Wyoming and used to long distances between places, but probably not "up the road" from anyone else's
a better plan (Score:1, Troll)
MS: I think it is wonderful you have become community minded towards Wyoming.
How about you take you tax exemptions and use the money you would spend in taxes on Science and Humanities courses for the kiddies aimed getting them ready for college level physics, chemistry, biology, and the social sciences. Those are the areas that climate change will most affect.
Computing is neither here nor there and is a waste of the kiddies' time given what will await them when they have grown up.
Even if MSFT uses a little less... (Score:4, Informative)
.."In 2020, coal-fired power plants produced about 80% of Wyoming's electricity generation, " [eia.gov]
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Only real patriots burn coal.
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Like the banner shown at one his rallies:
"Trump Digs Coal"
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Wyoming is the site of new nuclear power plants. https://www.energy.gov/ne/arti... [energy.gov]
If anything is going to replace coal in Wyoming then it must be cheaper than coal in Wyoming. That may be quite a challenge in a state that produces so much coal. Another challenge is finding work for the people that would lose their jobs if coal consumption drops. The Biden administration would like people to think that a new solar power project in California offsets coal mining jobs lost in Pennsylvania. That's not how
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According to Wikipedia, Wyoming has one of the highest wind power potentials in the United States. It's a massively under-tapped resource.
Therefore it would be relatively easy for Microsoft to build wind farms (and cover their data centre in solar panels) that supply enough energy to cover all their emissions, including from construction and fossil fuel powered vehicles etc.
So that's probably what they mean. Not that it won't use any fossil fuels for power, but that it will generate enough energy to displac
Re: Even if MSFT uses a little less... (Score:2)
500K + 350K (Score:4, Insightful)
Unless the incentives Wyoming offered totaled less than a million dollars, Microsoft is making off like a bandit here.
Not that Microsoft is behaving differently than any other company does - but I keep hoping the voters in these various states will eventually learn that these deals are actually a net negative, and start throwing the politicians who make these deals out of office rather than rewarding them.
It won't happen without more nuclear fission power (Score:1)
Dr. David MacKay made it quite clear in his calculations that we won't get to carbon negative as Microsoft wants to do, at least according to their PR, without nuclear fission power. Dr. MacKay shows his work in his book: http://www.withouthotair.com/ [withouthotair.com]
You can get a good overview in under 20 minutes of the book with his TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/davi... [ted.com]
He speaks slowly so you can likely watch at double speed and keep up, getting this in under 10 minutes.
I'll have people claim that Dr. MacKay's wor
will create 700 jobs "during peak construction (Score:1)