Well well well

[Coyote Chris]

Interestingly Edison pioneered the use of "waste" heat at his first cogeneration facility at the Pearl St. Station in NYC. His dynamos for generation of 100VDC were coal fired and provided lighting for about 1000 customers served by the station. Rather than allow the surplus heat go to waste, he created a steam heating district and used the surplus energy to provide steam heat to local businessesand residences. The same could be done with the waste heat from the data centers.

Mike

I think so too. The 4,000 US data centers provide a ready market for the technology. There are 2,000 others overseas. Who ever comes up with the tech will be richer than old pharaoh.

 

[ST1100Y]

Does wind power work?

Fluctuating, unsteady, unreliable feed -> struggling networks...

i.e. while there are strong winds in northern Germany, the turbine operators go "yay! Lets make some cash!"... without any other consideration...
the sudden amount of electricity can however not be consumed in the northern area, thus its diverted southbound into the (aged) grid, driving substations near "brownout" on regular bases...
and if the wind up there stops again, they have a hard time ramping up the conventional plants down south, to compensate and prevent a phase drop/shifting...

Far worse are the European nations in a power connection network across the entire continent... so above issues triple and quadruple...
(I guess similar conflicts between profiteering and aged grids exist within the US...)