centers

We already know how much water Amazon consumes in its data centers. We have good and bad news

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amazon has made public the data of water consumption in their data centers. It is a remarkable exercise in transparency, especially because its division Amazon Web Services (AWS) It is currently the largest cloud infrastructure on the planet. We have bad news… and also good news. 2.5 billion gallons. The figure that stands out the most in this report is the 2.5 billion gallons (almost 9.5 billion liters) of water consumed by its servers per year. It is approximately 5% of the annual water consumption for the Seattle metropolitan area, so this is a notable figure, but one that must be put in perspective because there have already been previous studies that they misunderstood the situation. Golf courses are worse. The company already stated a few weeks ago that “data centers use significantly less water than golf courses or car washes.” They also gave other examples that consume more water, such as the meat production industry or the textile production industry. The efficiency metric. A metric called water use effectiveness (or WUE) is used to measure the impact of a data center. This magnitude indicates the liters consumed for each kilowatt-hour of energy delivered to the servers. According to Amazon, its WUE is 0.18 liters per kWh, much better than Microsoft’s 0.27 l/kWh and of course the 1.1 l/kWh from Google in some of its facilities. It is clear that not all hyperscalers manage to cool their data centers with the same efficiency. Amazon spends a lot of water in its data centers, yes, but according to current data it consumes significantly less than its rivals. Physics is physics. Data centers generate enormous amounts of waste heat, and Amazon indicates that they use direct evaporative cooling systems. Instead of maintaining huge air conditioning systems, the company uses mechanisms that introduce outside air and pass it through humid panels. This allows water to evaporate, absorb heat and cool those rooms where the servers are. The toll exists, of course: evaporated water is lost to the atmosphere and cannot be immediately reused in local ecosystems, which causes pressure drops in surrounding reserves during heat waves. Geography helps. Amazon’s efficiency advantage also benefits from intelligent geographic location of its data centers, the company says. Many of them are in regions with temperate or cold climates in the northern hemisphere. In these areas, cooling by outside air (free cooling) you can take advantage of more than 80% of the days of the year. In contrast, its competitors have often been forced to create their data centers in very hot desert environments which require injecting pressurized water constantly. Promises on one hand, criticism on the other. To compensate this impact due to your water consumptionAmazon has committed to returning more water than it consumes to local communities by 2030. This policy, dubbed “water positive“groups initiatives ranging from the restoration of watersheds to the creation of wastewater treatment plants. Of course, all this discourse faces strong criticism. For these voices, what Amazon is doing is a facelift, but it does not fix the immediate local shortage of wells from which data centers extract water in the middle of summer. The problem persists. Amazon’s report is welcome because it breaks the silence that usually prevails in Silicon Valley regarding natural resources. Even so, it also shows that the world faces a notable problem if the water (and energy) consumption problems generated by data centers cannot be solved. Taking into account the ambition and multimillion-dollar projects of AI companies In this sense, it would be important for official organizations to be in charge of monitoring and regulating these gigantic consumptions. Image | amazon In Xataka | Data centers do not want to depend on the conventional electrical grid. Solution: build your own plants

Space data centers seem crazy. They make a lot more sense than it seems

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“Space, the final frontier” became a classic pop culture phrase thanks to the series Star Trek. Now there are those who complete it with “… data centers”, because that is what Elon Musk certainly wants to achieve, and he has a plan to achieve it. At first glance it seems crazybut it turns out that the idea is not at all crazy. Free cooling, nothing. As explained in a very deep report in Semianalysismany analysts support the idea by defending erroneous premises. The space, for example, does not offer free cooling. Since there is no atmosphere, heat is not dissipated by convection, and huge and expensive thermal radiators are necessary. Solar energy is also interrupted in low orbits (LEO), so satellites must be placed in sun-synchronous orbits, a resource that is beginning to become saturated. The current cost does not compensate. The analysis carried out in this study for the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for a currently standard 30.5 kW cluster (with two servers with 16 Nvidia B300 GPUs) does not add up. Deploy this infrastructure In space it is necessary to invest 4.1 million dollars, when doing the same on Earth costs 1.4 million dollars. Space data centers are currently 260% more expensive than on the planet’s surface. Bad business. Space transportation makes everything more expensive. He biggest problem What affects these costs is the costs of transporting the material to space. In that proposed example, of the $3.1 million total cost of space infrastructure, $1.6 million is due to launch. But there is also the problem of the useful life of this data center: on Earth these facilities pay for themselves in 15 years, but in space wear and radiation in orbit reduce the operational life of the particular satellite to only five years, which multiplies those capital expenses dedicated to the project almost by 20. The first bottleneck is the chips. Even solving these problems, the main obstacle is simply semiconductor manufacturing capacity. The demand for TSMC’s N3 wafers and the supply of HBM memories is much higher than the supply even without this idea of ​​​​space data centers. That would add even more demand to an absolutely saturated system. But there is also the (lack of) energy. The reason why Musk wants to promote this idea as soon as possible is that obtaining power supply for terrestrial data centers is increasingly complicated. Thus, getting a connection to the electrical grid in Virgnia (USA) already takes seven years. Companies are creating their own power generation plants to solve this problem. Even so, according to the study, it will become increasingly more expensive to access this supply: they estimate that the cost of “terrestrial energy” will be above 20 million dollars per MW when this decade ends. That’s why Terafab. To solve this first bottleneck, Elon Musk has launched its colossal Terafab project in Austin. It is a huge chip manufacturing factory that will need 10 GW of electrical power to produce one million semiconductor wafers each month. The plan takes into account that 80% of the chips produced are destined precisely for space data centers. Starship changes the equation. But Starship stands in front of all these problems. SpaceX hopes to be able to reduce launch costs significantly in the coming years, going from the current $1,400-1,800 per kilo for the Falcon 9 to just $250 per kg for the Starship. This, together with the improvement in radiator and solar panel technology, will reduce the cost gap with terrestrial infrastructure. Now it is 260% more expensive, but at the beginning of the next decade it will be only 30% more expensive and will achieve economic parity by 2040. But. The accounts could therefore come out in the medium term, but it is necessary to take into account other factors as the so-called long-term computing cost. On Earth, between 3% and 6% of GPUs in data centers fail each year and require manual replacement by a technician. In space that option disappears, so it is necessary to oversize the satellites with 20% chips to provide redundancy and thus absorb potential radiation failures. In Xataka | Aragón is quietly becoming a data center “powerhouse” – now it has taken a crucial step

If the question is whether AI data centers end up increasing temperatures in a region, the answer is: 2.2ºC

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A group of researchers from Arizona State University have published a study striking. They wanted to estimate the impact of AI data centers on the average temperatures of the region in which they are installed. Their conclusion is disturbing, because this increase can be up to 2.2 ºC. The massive use of AI raises another problem. There is already a clear debate about the water and energy consumption of AI data centers, but this study has focused on an equally important problem: thermal pollution. It’s hot. The researchers focused on the Phoenix metropolitan area, the hottest in the entire US. There, their analyzes indicated that data centers expel air from their cooling systems at temperatures that are between 14 and 25 degrees Fahrenheit above ambient temperature, creating thermals that can affect nearby neighborhoods. The air says it all. This is the first known research to use high-precision vehicle-mounted sensors to compare air temperature before and after passing through the facility. The data was clear: Downwind areas of a data center had average temperatures 1.6ºF higher, with peaks of 4ºF (2.2ºC) compared to the reference areas. Heat island effect. The impact of this increase in temperature is also notable in terms of the distance affected: these increases were detected even 500 meters away from the source, which is equivalent to about five “blocks” of homes in the city of Phoenix. Vicious circle. The very design of data centers causes this problem to feed into itself. A single data center can generate as much waste heat as a small city of 40,000 homes, and the vicious cycle is clear: The data center blows very hot air to cool its servers The air warms the surrounding neighborhood Neighbors use their air conditioners more Air conditioners expel even more waste heat Location is the key. David Sailor, who led the study, indicated that what they seek with their conclusions is not to prohibit data centers, but to rethink their integration with urban centers. To avoid or mitigate problems, solutions are proposed such as reorienting air outlets or creating parks that cushion these increases in temperature. The key, these researchers say, is urban planning: these facilities must be treated as sources of industrial thermal emissions, because that is what they are. Prevent before cure. The projected computing capacity for data centers to be built in the US will double in 2030, which according to this study makes it necessary to take action. The challenge, they say, is to apply these solutions before the waste heat generated by data centers becomes a public health problem. Spain may also have that problem. Projects that affect our country should also take this circumstance into account. In recent months we have seen how the Autonomous Community of Aragón has focused part of the protagonism of agreements with large technology companies, and both Amazon and Microsoft have data centers planned in the metropolitan area of ​​the city of Zaragoza. The towns of Villamayor de Gállego and Villanueva de Gállego are less than 20 km from Zaragoza, and both already have data centers planned. These initiatives promise to boost the region’s economy, but they also bring doubts. Not everyone is in favor of such centers, of course, and there are even judicial processes trying to stop its construction. Image | David Vives and AWS In Xataka | The great paradox of Madrid: the region with the largest energy deficit in Spain is losing the data centers

After deploying its data centers in Aragon, Amazon wants to protect Zaragoza from floods

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On July 6, 2023, a torrential storm collapsed the Barranco de la Muerte in Zaragoza, leaving the Z-30 under two meters of water and causing damage valued at 125 million euros, as collects The Herald. Among the affected structures, the high-speed train between Madrid and Barcelona and the capital’s main ring road. This natural disaster made it clear that Zaragoza lacked hydraulic infrastructure capable of absorbing extreme weather events, increasingly frequent with climate change, such as explains AEMET. In response, the City Council made a plan structured in three phases and began conversations with Amazon Web Services, the hyperscaler that Aragón has chosen for its data centers in Spain: the result is a public-private alliance that combines hydraulic infrastructure and real-time monitoring technology with the aim of turning Zaragoza into a European benchmark for urban resilience. Zaragoza, flood-proof. The Zaragoza City Council and AWS with the collaboration of the Government of Aragon and the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation have agreed implement a global technological and hydraulic strategy for environmental risk management. Amazon will contribute 13.8 million euros, distributed in three annual installments. The collaboration has two legs: a physical one, with the construction of hydraulic infrastructure in the Barranco de la Muerte; and another technological, with the deployment of an intelligent early warning platform based on the AWS cloud. Why is it important. This system will benefit more than 700,000 people who live in the Aragonese capital, in addition to protecting critical infrastructure for the city such as the Z-30, the train and entire neighborhoods such as Parque Venecia, today exposed to intense storms. Beyond the scope of the work, this is one of the few cases in Spain where a large technology company directly finances public civil protection infrastructure as a condition of its installation in the territory, which puts a question on the table: what the companies that consume the most resources can and should contribute to the cities that host them. Context. AWS maintains one of the largest investment plans in digital infrastructure in Spain: in 2024 announced an investment of 15.7 billion euros in Aragon over the next decade to expand its cloud infrastructure and new data center campuses in Villanueva de Gállego, El Burgo de Ebro and Huesca. This expansion has a B side: enormous pressure on the territory’s electrical, water and transportation networks. The Barranco de la Muerte is not an isolated case: the Valencia DANA of October 2024 left more than 220 dead and politically accelerated the demand for drainage infrastructure in vulnerable urban areas. Zaragoza, with active ravines and a climate prone to intense convective storms, is one of them. How are they going to do it?. From the point of view of hydraulic works, it is a lamination of avenues combined with sustainable urban drainage enhanced with real-time monitoring. The plan is divided into three technical phases. The first, financed by the council and already underway, consists of a perimeter canal and a retaining wall around the Barranco de la Muerte. The second, financed by AWS, adds a storm tank next to the Torrero Cemetery with a capacity for 20,000 cubic meters, five lamination dams and the improvement of the existing ones upstream of Z-40. The third would bury the ravine as it passes through Z-30 with a collector that would double the current drainage capacity. Added to this is a cloud platform that will combine sensors, artificial intelligence and real-time analysis to monitor flows and launch early warnings. That is to say: the physical infrastructure retains and laminates the water, and the technological infrastructure anticipates when and how much will arrive. AWS support is not only financial: it provides digitalization and predictive hydraulics that multiply the effectiveness of physical infrastructure. Yes, but. The collaboration is a real advance for the city, but it raises uncomfortable questions. The first is obvious: Amazon does not pay for these works out of altruism: its data centers in Aragon are voracious consumers of water and energy, so building water infrastructure in the city is a win-win: it minimizes the risk of supply failures in the event of potential natural disasters and improves its image while strengthening ties with the authorities. Water management is one of the thorny points of data centers and with its proliferation increases scrutiny and protests over the consumption of a scarce good, such as Amazon has already suffered itself in Aragon. On the other hand, for the alert technological platform to be useful, it will be an essential requirement that it be accompanied by proven evacuation and response protocols, which turns an alert into a real solution. How they plan to do it is something that has not been publicly disclosed at the moment. In Xataka | Zaragoza is so full of data centers that Amazon has decided to take one to… a town in Teruel with 900 inhabitants In Xataka | Quietly, Aragón is becoming a data center “powerhouse”: now it has taken a crucial step Cover | David Vives and AWS

China is launching giant buoys into the sea that are real “small” fortified data centers. Korea won’t like it

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Ocean observation is an essential activity to monitor climate change, navigation and the security of the planet, however 95% of internet data travels therethe sighting of ghost ships is the order of the day and we continue found new islands. Until now, the quintessential element for monitoring the sea has been floating sensors that everyone knows: buoys, a legacy of the analog world. In that calm calm China has invaded with its Sea Dragon (Hailong) series, a new generation of enormous buoys that mark a before and after in scale, design and functionality. Of course, they have nothing to do with that mooring that has reigned in naval engineering since the Second World War. The new Chinese buoy. The Hailong series are literally small disk-shaped fortified data stations. Although small is relative: its diameter is around six meters in diameter and as a structure it looks more like a small unmanned oil platform than conventional buoys. After completing the relevant tests at sea, it has already been integrated into the Yellow Sea observation network to continuously and real-time monitor the entire water column, according to the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. When deploying the new buoy, technicians simultaneously removed an older buoy after 16 years of service. A deliberate symbolic gesture insofar as it is not a mere change of buoy: according to the Institute it is “the world’s first system with a single disc side anchor structure”, leaving behind the classic central mooring point that has dominated Western marine engineering since World War II. Why is it important. The problem with the design of classic buoys is mechanical and well known: when a buoy with a central mooring rotates due to currents and wind, the cables coil and generate structural and instrumentation failures. This new lateral disc anchorage solves the root problem because it uses another geometry, thus minimizing these errors, operating with more stability. That is, the importance lies in the continuity of the data. The second reason is strategic. The Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences I had already tried other synchronized observation systems capable of covering from 10 kilometers of atmosphere to 1 kilometer of depth underwater, withstanding winds of 60 m/s and waves of up to 20 meters, powered by various energy sources (wave, solar, wind, hybrid). This new buoy transfers these capabilities to especially sensitive waters. It is, in short, a buoy designed to be operational for the long term. Context. Since the 1940s, the world standard for buoys has been defined by US Navy designs, such as the NOMAD (Navy Oceanographic Meteorological Automatic Device) type. For the time, these devices complied thanks to their simplicity and ease of deployment, although due to their physics they are vulnerable to excessive swinging. If there is serious surf, precision measurements get dirty. Over the years this standard has met precisely because it complied, its maintenance is low and other alternatives present challenges to its deployment. But China, driven by its need to control the South China Sea and the Western Pacific, has chosen to redesign the platform from scratch. In fact, China and Korea have a fishing agreement in the Yellow Sea dating back to 2001 where permanent installations are expressly prohibited. So China has fulfilled it in its own way: since then it has deployed 13 buoys, two large aquaculture cages and a maintenance platform. Analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) qualify this strategy of “progressive sovereignty”. How they have done it. The development is led by the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which has been testing real-time transmission mooring systems since 2016. The new buoy is, therefore, the result of a decade of development, not a technological leap that arrives overnight. The secret of its design is the topology: moving the anchor point from the geometric center of the disc to the side eliminates the twisting moment produced by the entanglement of cables in the classic design. Instead of a wave-riding hull, the body is designed with a narrow cross-section at the waterline and deep ballast, which noticeably reduces hydrodynamic forces. For energy management, photographs published by the South Korean navy last year show models with solar panels that, assisted by artificial intelligence for data management and instrument optimization. The result is a platform that shines for its autonomy and resilience, since it can operate continuously in adverse sea conditions without human intervention. Yes, but. From a technical and geopolitical point of view, this deployment has a double reading: China’s official description presents these buoys as tools for the study of climate change and tsunami warning, but inherently this infrastructure is dual: if it integrates sonar and can process data in real time, it can also function as a war and control tool. On the other hand, the deployment of these intelligent platforms in disputed waters has its drawback from the point of view of international maritime law since they are complex and almost permanent structures. In other words, it is like putting a pike there. In Xataka | The United States is launching giant spheres into the sea with one goal: to take advantage of one of the largest sources of renewable energy In Xataka | A buoy from Mallorca has revealed the meteorological problem that Spain faces: the Mediterranean Sea is on fire

As Europe builds data centers to achieve independence, its power grid enters the hunger games

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Europe finds itself at a crossroads. If you listen to the CEO of Mistral, you should start investing big to stop being the technological vassal of the United States. That implies investing and part of that investment is in data centers. But American Big Tech is also moving and, if in the US they find frontal opposition to the construction of data centersthey move and there are countries like Spain that are favorite destinations. But there’s a huge problem: it’s not so much about money as it is about energy. And European macroplans are colliding with the reality of the electricity grid. Full speed ahead. The United States has the most brutal data centers on the planetbut Europe has a plan to arm itself and achieve that technological sovereignty. The plan goes through energy thanks to geothermal energy and, above all, renewables. Europe is a power in this and Spain has already shown its plumage to attract European and Big Tech data centers. esteem that there are 5,400 in the US and 3,400 in Europe, and Europe wants to close the gap. There is a very small problem: renewables are not enough to satisfy the voracity of data centers. We are constantly seeing it: data centers need constant power, but when they enter intense computing phases, the expense is so high that they need energy spikes that renewables cannot satisfy. That’s where they come into play. nuclear, gas and even coaland a Europe that cannot play that due to environmental policies is where it has its weak point. Spain. There are several points to analyze. As we say, Spain is one of the countries that is presenting itself as one of the best assets to host data centers. Aragon, specifically, is a community that is pushing hard in this direction and serves as an example. AWS is going to put some gigantic data centers in the community, adding more than 10,800 GWh of energy per year. To contextualize, it is more than all the current electricity consumption of the community. But it is not only happening in Aragon and the fear is that the saturated Spanish electricity grid will now have to deal with those data centers that they can collapse the network. He blackout ghost it’s still there and it’s already been warned in the Official State Gazette that an increase in installations that are not capable of withstanding voltage dips pose a very high risk for the network. the hunger games. Because first the principles of agreement came and, now, the different EU countries are realizing that, perhaps, it is not such a good idea. One of the most recent cases is that of Energinet, the state operator of Denmark’s electricity grid, which, in March, suspended all new large-scale connection agreements by receiving requests that would reach 60 GW, with 14 GW of them being for data centers. As in the case of Aragon, it must be put in context and, according to According to CNBC, the country’s maximum demand is 7 GW, so that total of 60 GW exceeds the country’s consumption almost nine times. It is not about canceling plans, but about an extension until we discuss what to do with that demand, but there are already those who point out that the extension cannot be ruled out because, simply, the country’s network may not be prepared. Estimation of increased energy demand for data centers FLAP-D. But they are not the only ones. Amsterdam, London or Dublin can no longer absorb the brutal energy consumption of artificial intelligence and the technology industry has set his eyes on the northern countries (in which wind energy is the protagonist) and in those in the south (with solar as a guest star). They are three important names because they are part of the FLAP-D, the conglomerate of Flankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin that, historically, have been the dominators of the data center sector. Because these facilities have existed before the arrival of AI, but with the conversion to computing centers for AI is when their consumption has decreased. shot and when these metropolitan areas cannot meet demand. Those needs are so exaggerated It is estimated that data centers accounted for almost 80% of Dublin’s electricity consumption, forcing Ireland to impose a de facto moratorium on new data centers in its capital until 2028. braking. The situation, of course, is not the most promising for those who are building the AI ​​infrastructure at the moment. The boss of SMIC, one of the Chinese companies that is leading the country’s technological transformation, pointed out a few weeks ago that the AI ​​Big Tech companies are building all the infrastructure they will need over the next decade. in just one or two yearswhat is generating that plug in stock components worldwide. But then there is the energy plug which, as we see, is not small. And, obviously, it also generates delays in supply. According to the calculationsa decade to connect the new facilities to the electrical grid. If Microsoft, or whoever, builds a data center by 2027, but can’t pull the plug until 2037, something is clearly wrong. What is clear is that regulators are going to look at these projects with a magnifying glass because there is a physical limit that is that energy and connection requests. In fact, it is already recommended that before coming with a monstrous data center and then looking to see if there is a plug, construction plans take into account consumption and connection planning to national networks from the beginning. But there’s another problem: You can build a data center today that consumes x energy, but when you upgrade to more powerful platforms, those calculations may blow up. Either that… or self-powered data centers, as already stated made in Dublin. In Xataka | Data centers are real “heaters”. And they are settling in regions as hot as Aragón

Aragón unlocks the construction of new Amazon data centers after months of previous work

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Aragon is one of the renewable batteries from Spain. That ability to generate energy has put it in the sights of Big Tech that want to establish themselves in Europe with a clear objective: create more data centers. The shark here is an Amazon that has been operating in the region for a few years, but for which the panorama has just opened to achieve what it has been pursuing for some time. Turn Aragon into the “Spanish Virginia”. In short. This is not a simple comparison, since the US state is one of those with the largest concentration of data centers in the world. In Aragon we are about to see something similar. Amazon, via AWShas been operating since November 2022 in the region with data centers in Zaragoza and Huesca. However, the fever for data centers is more recent and the American giant has been behind permits for some time to be able to build more. As they point from El Periódico de Aragón, after the authorizations that the project has been obtaining in the last two years, Amazon will be able to start building. This is an operation that, until now, had been limited to preparing the ground, but with the unblocking of the operation carried out this past Monday by the Government Council, Amazon will be able to begin building the facilities. Extension. This falls into the PIGAthe General Interest Plan of Aragon, will not be limited to the data centers planned in Villanueva de Gállego and Huesca. The idea is that AWS occupies about 800 hectares with around thirty data centers, 10 electrical substations and 12 buildings, and it is something that is being developed in parallel to the plan to deploy data centers in Walqa, San Mateo de Gállego and La Puebla de Híjar. Jobs and money. Landing these plans, during this year’s Mobile World Congress, the American giant advertisement that their plan is to invest 33.7 billion euros in Spain (at the MWC they stated that they were going to double their initial investment) to expand their data center infrastructure in Aragon between 2026 and 2035. The total investment will contribute 31.7 billion euros to Spain’s total GDP until 2035 and will be esteem that the employment impact will be 29,900 full-time employees. Focusing on Aragon, this operation is expected to contribute 18.5 billion to the region’s GDP and provide employment to 13,400 people. These employment calculations include those of local companies, direct, indirect and induced. It’s not that Amazon is going to create 30,000 jobs out of nowhere and long lasting. Energy. Here comes one of the most important questions: whether Aragon, no matter how much renewable energy it has, will be able to face the gluttony of data centers. Because these data centers, in different parts of the computing process, need energy spikes that we are already seeing how they are covered in other countries: gas, nuclear and… coal. In fact, just scaling AWS will add more than 10,800 GWh per year, more than all current electricity consumption of the community. There has been a lot of debate about the water consumed by data centers and, although the figure is not negligible, the energy cost is much higher. And that is where there is some confrontation between the local industry and Amazon’s plans, because there are those who they claim that the concentration of electrical consumption of AWS and green hydrogen macroplants will brake the development of more traditional renewables. Reviews. And then there is the rejection on environmental issues. More and more we see that there are municipalities that They don’t want to live next door of data centers and it is noted that one of the giant’s projects will be based on protected land. The speed at which permissions have been given to Amazon is also criticized. And, then, there are other issues such as the studies that are appearing little by little and that highlight both the acoustic and thermal pollution of these data centers. It is something that is being measured in various parts of the world and, precisely, in some Aragonese towns near centers of data an increase has been observed of 2°C in surface temperature. Not just Amazon. AWS is an example of the ambitious plans in the region, but they are not the only ones. The community is consolidating as one of the ‘lungs’ of hyperclimbers in Europeas well as one of the key regions of Spain for the expansion of data centers and European technological sovereignty Images | amazon In Xataka | The great paradox of Madrid: the region with the largest energy deficit in Spain is losing the data centers

your dream of putting AI data centers in space is probably not feasible

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The possibility of setting up data centers for artificial intelligence (AI) in space is very attractive. So much so that several CEOs of some of the largest technology companies in the US have not hesitated to get wet and ensure that support this strategy. Jeff Bezos predicted in early October 2025 that data centers will reach space over the next two decades with the purpose of solving in one fell swoop the power supply problems currently posed by these facilities on Earth. Elon Musk did not take long to encourage the discussion even more. Shortly after Bezos’ statement posted a tweet in X in which he assured that SpaceX only needed to scale its Starlink V3 satellites equipped with high-speed laser links to bring this idea to fruition. In fact, he closed his tweet with a forceful statement: “SpaceX is going to do it”. However, the laws of physics are implacable. And SpaceX has had no choice but to acknowledge to its investors the daunting challenges that this project entails. Orbital data centers may not come to fruition According to ReutersSpaceX has delivered an official document to its investors in which it recognizes that both orbital AI data centers and human settlement on the Moon and Mars depend on technologies that have not yet been developed or tested, and that, therefore, may not be viable from a commercial point of view. SpaceX is preparing its IPOand this evaluation puts on the table the caution required by the legal obligation to be extremely honest with the risks to avoid future lawsuits from new shareholders. “Our efforts to develop orbital AI computing and in-orbit, lunar and interplanetary industrialization are in the early stages and involve significant technical complexity and the use of technologies that have not yet been tested. For these reasons they may not be able to achieve commercial viability,” SpaceX clarifies. There is no doubt that the challenges that need to be solved for data centers to reach space are colossal. The challenges that need to be solved for data centers to reach space are colossal One of them is the impact of the ionizing radiation about the hardware. This form of radiation is a type of high-frequency energy, such as X-rays, gamma, alpha or beta, which is capable of tearing electrons from atoms, thus altering the structure of molecules. In space, server chips are not protected by the Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, which makes them very vulnerable to ionizing radiation, which has the ability to permanently degrade them. To solve this problem it will be necessary to develop some type of shielding capable of protecting the hardware of the servers of the cosmic radiation. This requirement leads us to the next critical challenge: in space it is not possible cool servers using convectionas on Earth, because in the vacuum of space there is neither air nor water. In addition, it would be necessary to use enormous radiators. It is possible to propose several solutions to these problems, but we must not overlook that it is crucial to minimize the weight and complexity of the material that needs to be put into orbit. Otherwise its commercial viability will be non-existent. The two challenges we just delved into are probably the most difficult to solve, but orbital data centers pose more difficulties. One of them is that to deliver the gigawatts per hour they require, it would be necessary to use enormous solar panels. Furthermore, in some applications the latency that these space installations would introduce would probably be unaffordable. And, on top of that, maintaining an orbital data center would be extremely expensive. In fact, it probably wouldn’t even be economically feasible, forcing its owners to introduce massive redundancy that would push it away from profitability. Image | freepik More information | Reuters In Xataka | Elon Musk knows that TSMC is overwhelmed: Terafab is his idea to completely change the global chip industry

Much of the world economy right now consists of setting up data centers. And there is already a game on Steam that simulates it

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Surely what you want most when you come back from work is to turn on your PC or console to play a work game. There is not an ounce of sarcasm in this phrase, since for some time now games that are about that, about working, have become popular. And I don’t mean a ‘stardew valley‘ farm management or a ‘Animal Crossing‘mortgage payment: I mean games that are, directly, a second job. There are cleanof be an IT in a company, as a worker supermarket or of construction worker. Also being in charge of a data centerclear. With all the boom in data centers that have drunk the ram market and SSDs, it is possible that you can’t build a PC new because RAM is through the roofbut you can always fulfill the fantasy of being that person who has the power to set up servers and wire everything in their hands. Is called ‘Data Center‘, and as a game to learn how data centers work and turn off your brain, it is… interesting. The game of having an after-work job setting up data centers Don’t think of this game as a construction game like ‘The Sims‘ and the like. Here you already have the space and what you should do is internal management. You must buy the frames to install the racks, servers and switches, but not crazy, but depending on the needs of the clients who hire your services. Once you have the equipment, it is time to interconnect them with the Ethernet cables that link systems within the same rack, but that must also physically go to other platforms. The easiest thing is to pass those cables through aluminum structures hanging from the ceiling, and once you think you have everything ready, it’s time to turn it on. This is when your customers’ traffic is represented by light balls that travel along the cables. Those little balls have their reason because as things progress, Your clients will ask for more and more bandwidthand you will have to start managing and prioritizing. Equipment also breaks, so you will have to go to the PC to order spare parts or upgrades to have greater computing capacity. The idea is to create the perfect system with the best possible data flow, without bottlenecks and without wasting resources, carefully scaling to offer each client what they need and not oversizing. Those little balls represent data traffic. Each color is a customer It is, in short, a work game that can be repetitive, but that is why it works so well. In this type of titles you do not have to solve puzzles, You don’t have to be skillful with the controls or think too much. They are ideal for turning off the brain while we do a repetitive task and simply focus on what we have to do and what clients ask of us. It sounds like the most boring thing in the world, that second job that I mentioned at the beginning of the article, but they are perfect games to turn off the brain while we have a podcast in the background or something like that. In the comments of this particular ‘Data Center’, players highlight the “teaching” aspect and, despite the limitations of some systems, how realistic it feels. The store from which we must order the components Now, it is not a simulator. In the comments, players who claim to work in data centers point out that, although it is curious and represents some things very well, there are others that do not fit reality and technical options are missing such as VLAN systems or managing something as basic as power cabling. The best thing is that it costs nine euros and, if you don’t click on the first two, you can request a refund on Steam very easily. In the end, it is not a game for everyone. No game is, really.but ‘Data Center’ is one more of that much talked about wave of work games that is appearing recently. Because managing a data center may not be your thing, but for example, restore retro games or manage the latest video store of the city before Amazon eats it. Images | ‘Data Center’ on Steam In Xataka | It seemed like a game of imitating movements. It was actually diagnosing autism better than many clinical tests

Ford has been slow to adapt to the electric car, so it is going to start manufacturing batteries for… data centers

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Ford has decided to convert its electric vehicle battery manufacturing capacity into a large-scale energy storage business. The move has its own name: Ford Energy, a new division with $2 billion in investment planned for the next two years and the stated objective of supplying batteries to data centers, electricity companies and large industrial consumers. Because now. The starting point is not exactly ideal for the company. Ford’s electric division accumulated net losses of 11.1 billion dollars only in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Reuters. For this year, the company expects to continue losing between 4,000 and 4,500 million additional dollars in its electrical and software division. “I think the customer has already spoken,” Ford CEO Jim Farley told investors. With battery factories operating at low capacity and the electric vehicle market in the United States in free fall, especially after the elimination of the $7,500 aid last September, Ford has chosen not to dismantle that infrastructure, but to redirect it. What is Ford Energy and how it will work. The bet is articulated around the Glendale, Kentucky, plant, which will be converted to manufacture energy storage systems at network scale. According to counted Ford late last year, the facility will produce LFP (lithium ferrophosphate) cells and storage modules. The cell technology used is licensed by the Chinese firm CATL, with whom Ford already had agreements on its line of electric vehicles. The plan, according to the company itself, is to have initial operational capacity within 18 months and reach at least 20 GWh of annual production by the end of 2027. In parallel, the BlueOval Battery Park Michigan plant, in Marshall, will continue with its production of LFP cells for Ford’s upcoming midsize electric truck, but will also make lower amperage cells aimed at residential storage. Lisa Drake, the board of directors who heads Ford Energy, explained that the “predominant” business opportunity will be in commercial electric grid customers, with data centers as the second priority and the residential segment as the third leg. Drake also noted that when going out to market to explore demand, it became clear that the technology preferred by customers was precisely the containerized prismatic LFP system, something that Ford could easily manufacture thanks to its licenses. For his part, John Lawler, vice president of Ford, counted In the statement, Ford Energy’s core purpose is to “capture the growing demand for reliable energy storage that reinforces the stability and resilience of the electric grid for utilities and large consumers.” The market you want to conquer. The explosion of artificial intelligence electricity consumption in data centers is skyrocketing on a global scale. The International Energy Agency places the demand for these centers around 945 TWh by 2030approximately 3% of global electricity consumption, with a projected growth of 15% annually. In the United States alone, according to the Battery Council International, this consumption could double to between 400 and 600 TWh on the same date. In that scenario, large-scale energy storage becomes critical infrastructure and Ford, like many other converted manufacturersthey see a great business opportunity. Ford is late, but he is not alone. The problem is that Tesla has a decade of advantage. Its energy storage business deployed 46.7 GWh in 2025 alone, 48% more than the previous year according to TechCrunchand was also more profitable than its own electric car division, with gross margins close to 30% compared to 15% for the automobile. General Motors has also made a move: its joint venture with LG Energy Solution has just invested $70 million to convert its Tennessee plant, south of Nashville, into the production of batteries for storage. The transition, however, is neither easy nor cheap. Switching a factory from nickel chemistry, common in electric car batteries, to LFP can take up to 18 months and cost several hundred million dollars, according to share from Reuters. Added to this is technological dependence on China, which dominates the LFP supply chain, and 35% US tariffs on cathode and anode materials of Chinese origin. What this means in the long term. Just like they count From the middle, although the demand for energy storage in North America is expected to almost double in five years, going from 76 to 125 GWh, that is not enough to absorb the more than 275 GWh of productive capacity that the automobile industry has installed with electric in mind. Storage alleviates the problem, but does not completely solve it. Even so, this same reorientation is what many other car manufacturers have opted for in order to take advantage of their infrastructure and contain losses due to their electric cars, especially in the United States, which is where things are much weaker. Cover image | Hans and ford In Xataka | Australia has a straight highway of 150 kilometers. And to prevent you from falling asleep he has put hobbies on the posters

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