US Data Center Boom Creates Windfall For Electricians (nytimes.com) 59
Data center construction is driving an unprecedented influx of electricians to central Washington state, where abundant hydropower and tax incentives have attracted major tech companies building AI infrastructure, New York Times is reporting.
Microsoft alone projects needing 2,300 electricians in coming years for facilities across three counties along the Columbia River. Union electricians earning up to $2,800 weekly after taxes are transforming agricultural communities like Quincy, where data centers now account for 75% of local tax revenue.
While the construction boom has funded community improvements including a new high school, rising housing costs and limited long-term employment opportunities raise concerns about sustainable economic benefits for longtime residents.
Microsoft alone projects needing 2,300 electricians in coming years for facilities across three counties along the Columbia River. Union electricians earning up to $2,800 weekly after taxes are transforming agricultural communities like Quincy, where data centers now account for 75% of local tax revenue.
While the construction boom has funded community improvements including a new high school, rising housing costs and limited long-term employment opportunities raise concerns about sustainable economic benefits for longtime residents.
Re: Merry Christmas (Score:2)
Why (Score:1, Interesting)
Why is Microsoft futzing around with nuclear energy when hydropower is so superabundant in their backyard it has to be curtailed every day? Is nuclear just a ploy to get MAGA fanbois on their side?
Re: Why (Score:5, Insightful)
Because the local indian tribes want the dams gone. Smart people see the handwriting on the wall and are moving to replace them.
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Do you think the local Indians prefer the irradiated Hanford site?
Re: Why (Score:4, Informative)
What does Hanford have to do with nuclear power? Hanford Site was built as part of the Manhattan Project, a project to build weapons during WW2.
The worst civil nuclear power accident in the USA was at Three Mile Island in 1979. It was "so bad" that the plant was closed in 2019, that's 40 years later. It remained such a toxic mess that plans to reopen the plant started a few months ago, and it is expected to be producing power again in 2028.
There were worse accidents at military nuclear power plants but military power plants operated under different rules, especially decades ago when the risks were not as well understood. To get an idea on how the US military has changed in how they handle nuclear power look at Project Pele. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
I believe the local tribes would prefer nuclear power over hydroelectric dams, because Americans in general have shown more interest in nuclear power than hydroelectric dams. We will likely see some hydroelectric dams built in the near future, just not near any tribal lands.
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Again, why ignore the vast superabundance of hydropower in the Pacific Northwest such that the Snake River dams can be removed without affecting output because so much hydropower is curtailed daily now?
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The majority of data centers are outside of Washington is the reason for that. If you have a project that requires a large amount of land, the best places to build would in the middle of a desert where property values are low. Then you have things like getting power, and again, that takes land, so...desert again. The only downside to the desert is that you need water for many things, which the desert does not have, but if you are going to set up a power plant, then, you have the power needed to pump i
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Technically Antarctica is a desert.
Typical deserts have more downsides though than just the lack of water - the higher average temperature makes the carnot cycle less efficient, you need larger cooling structures, that sort of thing. Unless it's solar electric panels, of course.
You can also run nuclear power on a closed cycle even there though it'll probably cost a percentage point or two of efficiency. A 3rd generation high temperature reactor using something other than water for the primary loop would h
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Because they want to geo-distribute their data centers around the globe?
Re: Why (Score:2)
Superabundance? We have built numerous gas turbine plants to meet demand. As acceptable sites for new hydro are nonexistant.
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The local nuclear plant is at Hanford. They could put in another one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
And don't start lecturing on PV or wind unless you are willing to turn off the data centers in November through January inclusive. Note the unreliability of the green line.
https://transmission.bpa.gov/b... [bpa.gov]
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I know the tribes up in Alaska were very interested in the Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), especially if they could be placed close enough to provide district heating in a village.
And you're also very correct. I've come to believe that nuclear weapons programs are pretty much universally associated with "shit environmental procedures". IE "ignored almost completely."
I've identified this for the USA, England, France, and Russia.
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Hydroelectric power is a finite resource, there is nowhere to put another dam and local supply is largely spoken for.
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Again,buf you look at the power generation graph of the BPA, do they gave so much extra generation capacity that they curtail hydro daily and sell surplus to California and other far-off places?
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Drought. Sure there is a surplus in the winter/spring, by autumn, the last few years, there is a shortage. The glaciers are vanishing as well making the future supply more questionable.
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More relevant to the issue, they're not really pro-nuclear. They're anti-renewable and pro-fossil-fuel. Nuclear isn't really part of the shit-flinging culture war monkey fight that sets their energy policy preferences. They probably won't like anything that could reduce fossil fuel's grid share.
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Exactly who is "they"?
Ive been led to believe that renewable energy is cheaper than non-renewable (coal, oil, etc), but you believe they want not only the most toxic form of energy but also the most expensive?
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"They" being the MAGA fanboys. They do want the most toxic and expensive form of energy, because they believe it isn't really the most expensive or toxic, because they've been terribly misinformed about it. They believe that renewables are only profitable due to government subsidies and don't realize that fossil fuels get far more in subsidies. They care approximately none about the environmental aspects, but they believe that mining for materials needed to build renewable and battery technology that will l
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"Nuclear" telegraphs "powerful" to the common idiot. There is no way in hell they will get any new nuclear power going before the current AI hype collapses. And all it would do anyways is to make matters much more expensive.
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Why is Microsoft futzing around with nuclear energy when hydropower is so superabundant in their backyard it has to be curtailed every day? Is nuclear just a ploy to get MAGA fanbois on their side?
Perhaps, and this is just a guess, but perhaps they plan to build some data centers outside the great northwest of the United States [datacentermap.com] (it's "backyard")?
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Did you know that Washington sells its surplus electricity production to lots of other states?
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If it's like BC, and using the same rivers, I assume it is, it is seasonal with the need to import power in the late summer and autumn. Been a few tears of drought in the north west.
Temporary housing (Score:4, Interesting)
When they were building canals and railways, they put the temporary residents in temporary housing. Unfortunately in this case the electricians are likely to be earning more than the relatively poor of the area, so the need is for temporary housing (think mobile homes) for them whilst the electricians move into the permanent accommodation. Then when the demand disappears the poor can move back into the better housing and the temporary housing moves away.
Sadly there's not likely to be enough profit for temporary house providers to build without at least a kick start from the public sector, the town or county or state. So it would require some serious socialism - or a wise call by Microsoft...
Re: Temporary housing (Score:4, Informative)
See Boulder City [wikipedia.org].
Interesting, thank you (Score:2)
n/t
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Why is this unfortunate? Do you feel the electricians are over-payed?
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That was just my thought. Electrician is a skilled trade. Them earning more isn't a bad thing.
As for the housing, if the demand is relatively short, like a year or two, the electricians are likely to stay in the temporary housing, probably some mix of trailer homes and travel trailers/recreational vehicles.
It's just too much of a pain to kick people out on a temporary basis, and single male electricians are probably expected to make messes.
*For those unfamiliar with the US terms: A trailer home is a home
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Won't electricians move in to the area, spend their income, build houses, have their yards cut, trash hauled away, eat in restaurants, patronize the local walmart, etc?
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For a short while, these aren't permanent jobs.
Richer workers will displace poorer (Score:2)
So because the electricians will be better paid than the existing ordinary workers of the city, they will cause a housing shortage / rent rises for the ordinary workers. That will be unfortunate for those workers...
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So because the electricians will be better paid than the existing ordinary workers of the city, they will cause a housing shortage / rent rises for the ordinary workers. That will be unfortunate for those workers...
Because it is literally impossible to build additional housing, and whatever money these electricians earn will be spent exclusively outside the region, with even the most basic of necessities being imported, like from Amazon... /SMH
There's no homelessness in America (Score:2)
Because of course it's possible to build housing for them. Yet it doesn't get built. The influx of people into these communities will create additional demand that will not be addressed, especially in housing. The poorer members of the community will be the victims, but, of course, as they're not part of the elite noone able to address the issue is likely to care much, or even at all.
I hope I'm wrong...
Also a boom for EVs, windmills, nuclear power... (Score:4, Interesting)
There's a lot going on to create demand for electricians, as well as other skilled labor.
With energy shortages overseas (the USA has been largely insulated from this) there's a lot of manufacturing moving into the USA. Then there's growing popularity for EVs (both fully electric and hybrids) which is causing demand for new outlets and EVSEs being installed in people's homes, sometimes with upgraded service panels to handled the added load. Perhaps the EVSE alone isn't driving upgraded electrical service, there's heat pumps, people replacing fossil fuel appliances with electric, and a bit of the "AI boom" landing in homes as people get more computing devices.
To meet this added electrical demand will be more windmills, nuclear power plants, probably more natural gas power plants. Then there's going to be more transmission lines to get the electricity to people, and of course the data centers and such that are getting built need electricians.
If Trump follows through on expediting federal permits for any construction projects over one billion dollars then that could drive more demand for electricians and other skilled labor.
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Why does the eia.gov Energy Facts page show US energy demand flat or declining over the past couple decades just while EVs and data centers have been exploding?
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My guess is people have been replacing incandescent light bulbs with LED lighting.
In case people aren't getting the joke that was only half serious. Light bulbs aren't keeping electricity demand flat, not alone anyway, I suspect improvements in energy efficiency more generally has. There's been other contributing factors lately, such as people working and traveling less from COVID-19. We are reaching diminishing returns on energy efficiency, there's not a lot of room to trim off electrical demand any mor
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Solar panels on roofs reducing aggregate demand probably also plays a factor here. Basically, if you have solar panels on the house side of the meter, rather than 2 meters, solar power consumed by the house itself wouldn't be counted in those figures, which likely looks at what the power companies are billing.
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This is why I like how some European nations are mandating car parks have solar panels for cover. Mandates wouldn't fly in the US, but what would fly might be tax breaks, maybe even subsidies so that building owners wouldn't just add solar panels to covered parking, but have hybrid battery systems which not just help demand for the building, but can feed the grid when the batteries are charged. This wouldn't provide a lot of power, relatively, but it would help with the "edges".
Plus, if one uses solar pan
Re: Also a boom for EVs, windmills, nuclear power. (Score:2)
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I've seen that many executives from Europe are just as incompetent as the ones here in the USA. If your focus is just to convince Wall Street to pump up the stock price, the actual idea of running the company is far behind, which is a part of why Intel has been going downhill. Many of these people aren't even competent to run water.
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Because AI is not real. It is all grand hallucinations at this point. As before the few AI winters. Cannot wait for this one to start and the inane Ai stories going away.
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Why does the eia.gov Energy Facts page show US energy demand flat or declining over the past couple decades just while EVs and data centers have been exploding?
Maybe because there's a lot more to "energy" than just electricity? At the same time that EVs are coming online, they are displacing less efficient ICE cars. (The efficiency of ICE cars has been steadily increasing for decades, even as more are on the roads, resulting in relatively flat gas/diesel demand.) At the same time that data centers are
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There's a lot going on to create demand for electricians, as well as other skilled labor.
With energy shortages overseas (the USA has been largely insulated from this) there's a lot of manufacturing moving into the USA. Then there's growing popularity for EVs (both fully electric and hybrids) which is causing demand for new outlets and EVSEs being installed in people's homes, sometimes with upgraded service panels to handled the added load. Perhaps the EVSE alone isn't driving upgraded electrical service, there's heat pumps, people replacing fossil fuel appliances with electric, and a bit of the "AI boom" landing in homes as people get more computing devices.
To meet this added electrical demand will be more windmills, nuclear power plants, probably more natural gas power plants. Then there's going to be more transmission lines to get the electricity to people, and of course the data centers and such that are getting built need electricians.
If Trump follows through on expediting federal permits for any construction projects over one billion dollars then that could drive more demand for electricians and other skilled labor.
Of course this is happening just after I have retired.
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It is yet another bubble that will pop. Right now, the Baby Boomer generation is going through that, "we need more health care!". In the next 20 years, the demand for health care will go down, leaving all of these new medical offices empty, because there will be too many of them. AI is bringing this demand for electricians to set up new data centers, but in another few years, will we see the demand drop off a cliff, and all those electrician jobs with it?
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We also need better products than what we have now for electricians and plumbers to work with. For example, Wagos are an excellent step in evolution compared to wire ties. Giving tradespeople better stuff for their jobs (Uponor expanding fittings on PEX-A compared to crimp fittings) is going to not just make things easier, but work harder to screw up or shortcuts taken with.
I also wonder about smarter power delivery. A 48 volt DC circuit where all the electronics plug into would save all the parasitic po
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Wagos are an excellent step in evolution compared to wire ties.
That is a doubtful claim. Wire nuts generally produce a better and more secure connection and I suspect are still far more widely used for that reason.
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A 48 volt DC circuit where all the electronics plug into would save all the parasitic power lost from all the wall warts
Approximately how many wall warts do you imagine are installed in a world-class data center?
IT staff needs to go union! (Score:2)
IT staff needs to go union!
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Yep, that will go well. Either membership will signal "incompetent moron" or it will be very exclusive. Most IT people are crap.
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Really? 2,300 new electricians in 3 counties? (Score:2)
Microsoft alone projects needing 2,300 electricians in coming years for facilities across three counties along the Columbia River.
What are those, permanent jobs, as in 2,300 new, full-time positions for ever?
I think its more mathematical trickery - they will have 2,300 electrician jobs to BUILD the new datacenters, but once built, they won't have teams of electricians roaming the building, adding more outlets, installing lights, etc., it will be a small, on-going effort to keep the facility in good shape, a fraction of the electricians needed to initially outfit the datacenter.
Also firefighters will benefit... (Score:2)