<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ligatures:standardcontextual;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Neither of these articles are particularly informative, but Generacs are often duel fuel: natural gas and Diesel. Amazon just bought eight beeeeeelllllion dollars worth of them:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><a href="https://www.semicone.com/article-537.html">https://www.semicone.com/article-537.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><a href="https://www.wpr.org/news/generac-deal-amazon-supply-generators-data-centers-waukesha">https://www.wpr.org/news/generac-deal-amazon-supply-generators-data-centers-waukesha</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Dang, that’s a lotta generators.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>I have been thinking about the power challenge ever since it became clear what data centers were going to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Since the second fire at Moss Landing (the SECOND! sheesh) I have been pondering the energy storage problem. After paddling around on Elkhorn Slough adjacent to Moss Landing, I became convinced my scheme wouldn’t work very well: setting up batteries on wheeled platforms which could be separated and dumped into the slough if they suffer a thermal runaway. I now think that wouldn’t work: the environmentalists would sue our brains out.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>OK, consider that corridor I keep obsessing about, south of Vegas along 95. There isn’t much traffic up thru there, not much development. The Arizona gambling crowd would be more likely to take 93, and the California harlot shoppers more likely to take the interstate or just stay home and get it free.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>So that means 95 is mostly… ours.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>When I was estimating costs last time, I realized I missed something important which would likely reduce the cost of energy storage dramatically: we can store energy in used EV lithium batteries. They lose range a long time before they are really worn out. Performance car guys will be eager to change them out. Result: batteries with half their serviceable life left. They don’t cost much if they are heading to recycle anyway.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Part two: I missed a good way to fireproof the facility. We could take worn out old pickup trucks and load the beds with worn out EV batteries. Then if a pickup truck bed full of lithium batteries goes into thermal runaway, we let the truck roll down a slope to burn out harmlessly in the desert. The truck doesn’t need to run, it only needs to roll. Worn-out scrap metal pickups don’t cost much and gravity never fails, even when we desperately need it to.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Part three: we can reduce the factors that shorten battery life just by keeping the batteries indoors. This can be done with low-cost structures such as steel arch ag buildings:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/287119570744?_skw=20x60+steel+arch+buildings&itmmeta=01M3AW954N72MAG9B9GVAQ31GR&hash=item42d9a8f738:g:lXEAAeSwx8pqLGx2&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAABAGfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xABnZXzH8v6ivnhwCmAD22vBS6ilQf9oMxI0PdwUOEFROB59F6%2FdUbo1sulqWAhCODgMUnXyLlHlp7Hk25B%2B90Xj8wfE2gDED%2FEmW%2Bak682Q80qop0j8DexAJz9eugpA8uSfxF9sCUYCe92kMN6fITCeYdngUxSlah3kL16wm%2F2E1fpnCtd8onGHUGZ%2B78umxRrl4bb10uz5Rz%2B14PFap5Gn%2FuhkqPXbDlqYR3Wana%2FyY74fzsRf5lZnBhDjMGICi2wB%2FWKV2k0LI%2BCCMjEXXjHk%2B%2BCo8c90pNjFr7CmDk9kf9l6cmtm7%2FrSi4zH6xIDew%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMwtKk3Jpo">https://www.ebay.com/itm/287119570744?_skw=20x60+steel+arch+buildings&itmmeta=01M3AW954N72MAG9B9GVAQ31GR&hash=item42d9a8f738:g:lXEAAeSwx8pqLGx2&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAABAGfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xABnZXzH8v6ivnhwCmAD22vBS6ilQf9oMxI0PdwUOEFROB59F6%2FdUbo1sulqWAhCODgMUnXyLlHlp7Hk25B%2B90Xj8wfE2gDED%2FEmW%2Bak682Q80qop0j8DexAJz9eugpA8uSfxF9sCUYCe92kMN6fITCeYdngUxSlah3kL16wm%2F2E1fpnCtd8onGHUGZ%2B78umxRrl4bb10uz5Rz%2B14PFap5Gn%2FuhkqPXbDlqYR3Wana%2FyY74fzsRf5lZnBhDjMGICi2wB%2FWKV2k0LI%2BCCMjEXXjHk%2B%2BCo8c90pNjFr7CmDk9kf9l6cmtm7%2FrSi4zH6xIDew%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMwtKk3Jpo</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Those steel arch buildings don’t cost much and don’t cost much to assemble. If a prole were to grade and roll a slope, put a row of these arch buildings shoulder to shoulder for 6 km, that’s a thousand buildings. Each one can fit six worn out pickup trucks, three across, two deep, each truck with half a ton of worn out lithium batteries. That’s about six thousand trucks, or about 3k tons of batteries. The trucks could be bought from scrappers, and they don’t cost much. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>I bet we could set this all up for a about 10 million bucks, and it would be fireproof.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Given sufficient power storage, wind and solar power become important players in setting up the future battlefield for AI.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>