So CHAT GPT: How to rebuild the Sabres

[JustOneParade]

If only there was someplace that had a lot of power generation and water and could also use an economic ‘shot in the arm’.

[Pimlach]

21 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Buddy of mine works for a state power company in... don't worry about it.  They are building a server farm for AI which will effectively take the grid in the town it's being built at from 85% capacity to 140% capacity. He said the other issue is water, they expect it to double the amount of water the town needs... which it doesn't has. 

Lots of environmental impact to this AI.  Just like the bit coin "harvesting" BS.    

Increased electricity demand due to AI data centers is driving up electricity costs all over the country.  

[Taro T]

23 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Lots of environmental impact to this AI.  Just like the bit coin "harvesting" BS.    

Increased electricity demand due to AI data centers is driving up electricity costs all over the country.  

Increased share of electricity production from expensive forms of electricity production (solar, wind) is also contributing to increased costs of electricity.

[Pimlach]

4 hours ago, JustOneParade said:

If only there was someplace that had a lot of power generation and water and could also use an economic ‘shot in the arm’.

Is the power harvested from Niagara Falls maxed out?  

[French Collection]

5 hours ago, JustOneParade said:

If only there was someplace that had a lot of power generation and water and could also use an economic ‘shot in the arm’.

Still a lot of under utilized water courses in Canada. 
NIMBY has been the stumbling block of many generation projects, whether they are Hydro, Wind, Gas, Nuclear, Solar. Everyone wants the power, no one wants the responsibility of dealing with flooding, mercury, birds, aesthetics, greenhouse gases, waste with extremely long half lives etc…

Ontario is around 50% nuclear generation and it has been pretty reliable.

I know little about these huge data servers but don’t they also perform better and use less power in a cold environment?

[GoPuckYourself]

It speaks volumes about why we're so bad, 2 high end talented players on the entire roster after missing the playoffs 14 seasons in a row and no goalie at all to speak about. I have very little hope at all that the Sabres will ever turn this around and will most likely come by accident somehow.

[JustOneParade]

2 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Is the power harvested from Niagara Falls maxed out?  

Don’t know the answer to that question @Pimlach.

[Taro T]

4 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Is the power harvested from Niagara Falls maxed out?  

No.  At least not from a technical standpoint.  They could send a lot more water to the turbines on both sides of the river, but it'd lower the flow over both escarpments to seem like a trickle.  So, effectively, yeah, it's maxed out.

At night and in the winter, they increase the flow of water through the turbines, but tourists want to see the "7th wonder of the world."

[JohnC]

6 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Lots of environmental impact to this AI.  Just like the bit coin "harvesting" BS.    

Increased electricity demand due to AI data centers is driving up electricity costs all over the country.  

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency will collapse from their own inherent fraudulence. The main purpose of crypto is to hide the source of ownership for dirty money. Big time criminal organizations, eastern Europe and Russian oligarchs and country appreciate this manufactured currency so they can continue on with their illicit businesses and activities. 

[Weave]

2 hours ago, Taro T said:

No.  At least not from a technical standpoint.  They could send a lot more water to the turbines on both sides of the river, but it'd lower the flow over both escarpments to seem like a trickle.  So, effectively, yeah, it's maxed out.

At night and in the winter, they increase the flow of water through the turbines, but tourists want to see the "7th wonder of the world."

And there is a treaty with Greater Canadia that prevents it as well.

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, JohnC said:

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency will collapse from their own inherent fraudulence. The main purpose of crypto is to hide the source of ownership for dirty money. Big time criminal organizations, eastern Europe and Russian oligarchs and country appreciate this manufactured currency so they can continue on with their illicit businesses and activities. 

 I don’t know what that stuff really is.  Some Chinese guy came up with numbers and computing algorithms for something-something?  My best investment decisions have been in companies and businesses that I understand.   

[JohnC]

10 hours ago, Pimlach said:

 I don’t know what that stuff really is.  Some Chinese guy came up with numbers and computing algorithms for something-something?  My best investment decisions have been in companies and businesses that I understand.   

My friend’s daughter works for the Federal Reserve. She’s very smart. Whenever I see her I jokingly ask her what is crypto. She then jokingly responds: I don’t know.

The best way to describe this “scheme” is that it is a vehicle to launder dirty money and hide ownership of that money. And there are a lot of naive and unaware people who will sadly lose a lot of their money because of their gullibility.

I’m a 500 S&P index investor. 

[LGR4GM]

The issue with nuclear is that if we wanted to increase energy output and replace the coal/oil/fossil fuels with Nuclear Energy, we would have had to start building those plants in the 90's. Instead we spent 15-20yrs afraid of it. It takes a really long long time to get a nuclear plant up and running with all the regulations and the like. On top of that ppl are still scarred from things like Chernobyl. 

I am not opposed to nuclear as a stop gap to get us to fusion in another 20-30yrs but even if we started now, it would 10-15yrs before there were enough nuclear plants to really impact the grid. This is my understanding of it at least. 

[GoPuckYourself]

A new owner who actually cares?

[LTS]

On 11/30/2025 at 8:49 AM, Demoted said:

These AI facilities have already destroyed communities in the south. As long as those communities are black or low educated they are OK with destroying them. Greed is great 👍 

Land that is cheap and communities that will provide tax breaks will always be the motivating factor of business. Not much else to say here without wading into political territory and I'm not interested in doing that. On a planet with an ever increasing population and ever increasing technological improvements the need to generate more power will not diminish and this means that somewhere more power generating facilities will need to be constructed.

What's the alternative?

On 11/30/2025 at 9:23 AM, ska-T Palmtown said:

I am just a dumb concrete and steel guy, but all the smart folks with actual nuclear degrees tell me that the "next generation" of nuclear power (both the Small Modular Reactors (SMR) and true Gen IV reactors) are more efficient in terms of how much of the heat from the reaction is captured and converted into power and the amount of power that is generated per unit of waste. Several of the companies out there that a vying to build the next wave of plants are even developing advanced and novel fuels. 

@Demoted - what you mentioned definitely makes me feel conflicted. On one hand, developing cleaner and safer technologies to provide power for the future is very exciting, but as you mention the need is primarily driven by AI and data centers which are, of course, disproportionately affecting areas that are primarily persons of color, the poor and poorly educated, or both.  I feel a little better when I think that if not for new power, those disadvantaged communities may actually lose access to power because the politicians will certainly cater to "Mega Corp" instead of their actual constituents. 

I'm not in the power business but in the data business so I won't pretend to know about efficiency gains, etc.  

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

My friend’s daughter works for the Federal Reserve. She’s very smart. Whenever I see her I jokingly ask her what is crypto. She then jokingly responds: I don’t know.

The best way to describe this “scheme” is that it is a vehicle to launder dirty money and hide ownership of that money. And there are a lot of naive and unaware people who will sadly lose a lot of their money because of their gullibility.

I’m a 500 S&P index investor. 

Crypto is the evolution of the credit card and the digital finance system. The only thing that gives it any credence is that certain entities attribute a value to it and so it can be traded.

Money is a fictional entity in our society. It's only worth what the people who decide financial markets say it's worth. Even without crypto our financial system is highly unstable. We are all playing along within that system. 

 

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, LTS said:

Land that is cheap and communities that will provide tax breaks will always be the motivating factor of business. Not much else to say here without wading into political territory and I'm not interested in doing that. On a planet with an ever increasing population and ever increasing technological improvements the need to generate more power will not diminish and this means that somewhere more power generating facilities will need to be constructed.

What's the alternative?

I'm not in the power business but in the data business so I won't pretend to know about efficiency gains, etc.  

Crypto is the evolution of the credit card and the digital finance system. The only thing that gives it any credence is that certain entities attribute a value to it and so it can be traded.

Money is a fictional entity in our society. It's only worth what the people who decide financial markets say it's worth. Even without crypto our financial system is highly unstable. We are all playing along within that system. 

 

What distinguishes crypto from other forms of currencies is that the names behind the transactions are masked. It’s a platform for criminals and fraudsters. I’m confident that this Potemkin scheme will sooner or later collapse.

[Pimlach]

20 hours ago, French Collection said:

Still a lot of under utilized water courses in Canada. 
NIMBY has been the stumbling block of many generation projects, whether they are Hydro, Wind, Gas, Nuclear, Solar. Everyone wants the power, no one wants the responsibility of dealing with flooding, mercury, birds, aesthetics, greenhouse gases, waste with extremely long half lives etc…

Ontario is around 50% nuclear generation and it has been pretty reliable.

I know little about these huge data servers but don’t they also perform better and use less power in a cold environment?

Electronics are reliable when operated within their proper temperature range and keeping them in this safe operational environment extends their life.  

Even your laptop has a small fan in it but much of the laptop's thermal design is handled by making its mechanical design (such as the frame and the case) a heat sink for the electrical components.  

Electronics components in these massive data servers will throw out a lot of heat and if left unchecked they will fall out of their safe operating temperature and fail.  Picture racks and racks of printed circuit boards, each with millions of circuits running high speed calculations.   Blowers move cool air either over or through the boards.   So A/C compressors are needed.  Some really large systems have liquid cooling running through the equipment rack "cold walls" that are analogous to a car radiator system.  A liquid cooling system also needs a heat exchanger.  

So you need power for the computers/servers, and for cooling systems, and for the buildings environmental control.  They set it up in a closed loop system to maintain the optimal operating temperature - meaning they need thermostats, flow sensing, and real-time continuous monitoring.  

Given this, the buildings should be insulated and putting them in cooler climates makes much more sense to reduce the requirements for cooling.  But, who knows what they actually do?  

Seems like a lot of energy and environmental impact for something with a debatable need.   

 

[SHAAAUGHT!!!]

On 11/30/2025 at 1:11 PM, Taro T said:

Increased share of electricity production from expensive forms of electricity production (solar, wind) is also contributing to increased costs of electricity.

I love this thread for all the wrong reasons.  Allow me to explain:

1) I already feel like AI is running this team because its the same reguritated crap we've seen for years reconfigured into a new consolidated form that looks slightly better than before, but still something is obviously not right. I don't think there isn't a lot of "real" intelligence in this front office, and the main reason for that is the guy running the show only knows how to dig holes, sell oil, and convince people to give him money.  You don't have to be smart for that.  Good for him, bad for us.

2) The claim that solar and wind are expensive and are increasing the cost of electricity is 100% not true.  I won't pontificate here, but if you are truly interested in learning why then google LCOE.  Not only are solar and wind are the cheapest forms of energy production, they come online faster than gas or nuclear (solar or wind can take from 6-18 months, while gas (5-7 years) and nuclear (9-12) take much longer. The real increased cost of electricity is the fact these towns and residents are completely subsidizing the data center electrical demands on the grid along with your normal everday corporate greed.

3) Nuclear has it's place in the mix, but grid demand is not linear, it is intermittent. Once you start that nuclear reaction, the power has to go somewhere. That is why a good baseload strategy is a mix of gas and nuclear with wind and solar to handle peak and unplanned loads.  It really is that simple.

4) New nuke tech is coming online over the next 5-7 years but as many mention above, 1) it requires a ton of water, 2) transportation of fuel and waste is problematic, 3) the proliferation of nuke plants requires geo-politic stability, which I have zero confidence in.  For example, the risks were/are extreme when Russia went into Ukraine

Not looking to debate anyone on anything, because, well, I've been in this industry for 25 years and have heard all the talking points, all the biases, all the "solutions," and worked on everything but nukes at this point.  Just felt I needed to step in and make sure the correct information is out there...