The largest geothermal plant in the world is only 1.5GW, in the United States, which is over double all the plants combined in Iceland. The second largest is 1/3 that, in Mexico. [1]
replyThere is no "ubiquitous" geothermal where there also high power usage. Data centers have to go where power is, not can be.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_geothermal_power_stati...
Related, it should surprise no-one that the tech giants are interested in nuclear [1], including small reactors [2], rather than waiting for the utility monopolies [3] to raise an arm and actually generate more power [4].
reply[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/12/amazon-google-and-meta-suppo...
[2] https://www.sciencenews.org/article/small-modular-nuclear-re...
[3] https://floodlightnews.org/fraud-and-corruption-on-rise-at-u...
[4] https://decarbonization.visualcapitalist.com/animated-70-yea...
To be fair, Vancouver is such a magical place in terms of electrical cost, but the cost of living and real estate are otherwise through the roof, with decrepit and nasty (would need $100k in renovations immediately if you're not treating it as a teardown) single family detached homes on the east side of the city selling for 3.2 million.
replyYeah there's a reason our datacentres are in Kamloops, cheap housing and a big ass river right next to it. It even gets decently cold in the winter so you can save on cooling.
replyThere's also tons of opportunity to build them out in former pulp mill towns on Vancouver Island that have big interconnects or dedicated generation.
You'd have to be an idiot to put a datacentre in Vancouver, or have fuck-off scale monopoly money, which is probably why Telus is doing it.
Shhh don't forget we have a water shortage. But it is nice to have electricity wrapped into my relatively cheap basement suite rent ;)
replyYou aren't, perchance, from Iceland, are you?
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