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How Amazon, One of the Richest Companies in the World, Secretly Offloads Its Electricity Costs To Local Taxpayers Who Live Near Its Data Centers (bloomberg.com)
Several readers have shared this Bloomberg report: Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud computing business, is its fastest-growing and most profitable division, but it comes with a lot of upfront infrastructure costs and ongoing expenses, the biggest of which is electricity. Over the past two years, Amazon has almost doubled the size of its physical footprint worldwide, to 254 million square feet, including dozens of new data centers with vast fields of servers running 24/7. In at least two states, it's also negotiated with utilities and politicians to stick other people with the bills, piling untold millions of dollars on top of the estimated $1.2 billion in state and municipal tax incentives the company has received over the past decade.
Other companies, including Google and Tesla, have taken advantage of the power industry's hunger for growth and the relative secrecy that followed its 1990s deregulation in dozens of states. But Amazon stands out for its success in offloading its power costs and also because it dominates America's cloud business, which has gone from nonexistent to using 2 percent of U.S. electricity in about a decade. "Amazon had a huge advantage, because there weren't a lot of other sectors growing in the electricity market," says Neal Elliott, senior director of research at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a green lobbying group. The company has also ratcheted up the secrecy around who's paying for electricity, says environmental advocate Greenpeace, which calls Amazon the single biggest obstacle to industry transparency.
Other companies, including Google and Tesla, have taken advantage of the power industry's hunger for growth and the relative secrecy that followed its 1990s deregulation in dozens of states. But Amazon stands out for its success in offloading its power costs and also because it dominates America's cloud business, which has gone from nonexistent to using 2 percent of U.S. electricity in about a decade. "Amazon had a huge advantage, because there weren't a lot of other sectors growing in the electricity market," says Neal Elliott, senior director of research at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a green lobbying group. The company has also ratcheted up the secrecy around who's paying for electricity, says environmental advocate Greenpeace, which calls Amazon the single biggest obstacle to industry transparency.
I wondered what that huge-ass extension cord going from the side of my house towards the general direction of the Amazon data center was for!
That and the $400k/month electric bills. I figured I just had the AC set kind of high.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I say again. After tax breaks and all other leaching, does it really make sense for us to allure these huge companies to cities if there is no net benefit for the city?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Don't lump in Tesla with Google and Amazon. Tesla is a green company and has a mission to save the environment and the planet. They would never do this just to save some money.
In at least two states, it's also negotiated with utilities and politicians to stick other people with the bills
So, is this Amazon's fault, or the fault of the "utilities and politicians"?
Have gnu, will travel.
but we keep having to change out memory chips on the servers. They seem to have a problem retaining short term data.
Coal would have died without Greenpeace and others like them driving up the cost of nuclear. Coal mines were going bankrupt in the late 60s and early 70s but then nuclear costs went up 10x and suddenly coal was viable again. Greenpeace is responsible for a good portion of the CO2 in the atmosphere as well as lead, arsenic and radioactive dust released from coal burning (yes, coal has radio active material in it, usually in the form of daughter particles of radon decay). Plus all the deaths from the mining of coal. Screw them and their virtue signalling about being good for the environment.