100% reasonable and fair take. No notes lol.

I wouldn’t point to power companies as the sole culprits here. These data centers shouldn’t be getting approval in the first place based on their power and water demand, but they promise more money and jobs coming to the area and these dipshits keep believing them.

So long as fuel prices fluctuate, power prices will fluctuate. Some price variation is more for curbing costs than for padding profits. I’m not the guy running those numbers at my power plant, but I see power rates swing with demand and prices/MW. The past few days in VA were pretty demanding on us.

The thing to keep in mind with that 400kWh times 500 cars is that that is the amount of power used over the course of a month, but generated in an hour. My charger at home is set up on the beefiest breaker it can support at 240V 60A (but only using 48A because 80% rule for continuous load) charging at only ~11.5kW. So that 400kWh is trickled out across well over 30 hours.

It’s a good thing that modern homes are electrifying. Rather than exploding things on site at individual homes, we have power plants do that at scale and send the electricity to the homes, which is more efficient. Even better if wind, solar, or hydro are used. Also, modern electric heat pumps are capable of being effectively like 500% efficient since they are manipulating energy spikes of phase change to move heat instead of making it.

Idk what you mean by your “place” being 16MW. Do you work at a power plant producing that or a data center using that or something else? In any case, the implication is that that 16MW is a rate of power, so at that continuous rate it would be 16MWh (16,000kWh) moved over the course of that hour. 16,000kWh every hour compared to my car needing an extra 11kWh in those hours that I’m plugged in.

I’d say that 500-1000MW is pretty average for a power plant that isn’t wind, solar, or hydro. The nuclear plant I worked at before was 2 units, each about 900MW, so 1800MW total. And that plant was built in the 70s, so imagine what we could be doing with modern nuclear innovations if we would just fucking build some new plants. If we assume each home uses 1000kWh in a month with continuous power usage (unrealistic, but easy math to make a point so let me cook), then that one plant from the 70s can power 54,000 homes. Cut it in half to allow for spikes and that’s still 27,000 homes. That plant also just used the bay it was built on for it’s circ water system, so it doesn’t even impact water use by much. Bay water came in, went through heat exchangers to condense steam, and carried that heat back to the bay where a lot of fish enjoyed the warmer water, and the fishers enjoyed the congregation spot lol.

Electric cars aren’t as big of a strain on the grid as big oil and gas would have you believe. Most people charge their car at home at slower speeds (compared to DCFC) and usually overnight when there’s less power demand anyway. It’s cheaper and more convenient this way, plus it flattens the duck curve which allows more stable and consistent generational load. I have a longer commute than most at about 90 miles round trip, and my monthly power usage is only up by about 300-400kWh/month. Average in VA is about 1100, but I was a bit below that before the EV at around 900-1000, now around 1300. That sounds like a lot but it really isn’t. The power plant I operate generally puts out about 700MW, or 700,000kW. At that load, my plant could replenish the same commute as my car’s needs for nearly 32,000 cars in only an hour, every hour. My home’s entire month of above average power needs is met in an hour of operation… Along with over 500 homes with identical power needs.

I can’t argue with you about revoking incentives for solar and wind. What a stupid fucking move. I’m not going to pretend that putting solar panels on my roof could’ve ever achieved net zero for my home, but I could’ve relieved some grid strain during the day while simultaneously investing in cheaper overall energy bills.

Speaking of cheaper energy bills, the EV also did that for me; electricity bill is $50-60 higher but I now have no reason to stop at a gas pump or pay for oil changes. Before gas prices spiked earlier this year, each commute in my RAV4 cost me about $10 in gas, plus some amount for maintenance that I’ll just ignore for now. My commute when charging at home costs closer to $3.50. I’m saving about $100/month on fueling up. A lot of people have told me they’d never get an EV in a million years, and I get that it’s not for everybody and I’m not forcing it on anybody, but for anybody with the ability to charge at home and who is generally just doing normal commutes and who is already looking to replace their car, I don’t understand the aversion. If cost is the main factor, get a used one like I did since they’re about half price, and stop looking at the luxury/sports models. If range anxiety is a factor, it shouldn’t be one for most people. I limit my charge to 75% battery to extend my car’s battery life, and my commute only drains it to like 30% even while blasting AC, and my car only has a max range of 250 miles when new! I even did a road trip last month and it was fine. I barely did any extra waiting to charge since we were already stopping for food or bathroom breaks anyway, even while my car’s shitty 50kW charge rate (most modern cars can do at least 150, some around 350) left us with much longer charge times!

There’s a ton of propaganda against EVs, and it really took getting one for me to see how ridiculous so much of it was. Used ones are gonna get more expensive and harder to find as the truth comes out.

Yeah, that’s right when the story really gets going. Remember that scene and binge from there, and I’m sure you’re gonna appreciate what the game is about.

Have you finished it yet? It’s best played through fairly quickly so you can remember different parts. There are a couple of frustrating encounters, but the story is top notch.

I don’t think that the criteria for what belongs in c/memes should be whether it’s still a meme if downloaded and placed somewhere that isn’t c/memes. That’s like saying “I bought this champagne from France but poured it from its original bottle into another bottle, and now that there’s no label designating it as champagne, it was never truly champagne to begin with.”

What if the contextualizing text is the title of the post? Then is the meme template considered a meme?

And I will bravely yuck the Nazis’ yum.

I hope his estate is forced to pay when he’s no longer alive to fight this.

A little pedantic, but fine. This one then?

Ain’t nobody headed to c/memes to see a fucking high five

Counterpoint:

We didn’t give tens of millions of people medical coverage; we forced tens of millions of people to buy medical insurance or else pay a tax penalty. I’m glad that it was at a discounted rate, but given the choice between paying for nothing or paying for shitty insurance, the decision was easy, but a lot of people really struggled to make ends meet as a result and it shouldn’t have put additional strain on those families.

The Biden moments were also good but ultimately half measures. Railroads should’ve been nationalized, cannabis should’ve been legalized, and student loans and absurdly priced tuitions should’ve been massively reformed.

I’m glad to have seen something that wasn’t just more horror on those topics, but they’re a far cry from what The New Deal did for people.