Boundless Free Cooling
Why Greenland is REALLY in the news.
Greenland does have minerals, but there is another issue that nobody has mentioned.
Have you ever seen Chasing Ice? That’s Jacobshavn Isbræ, the source of the iceberg that got the Titanic.
And this is Greenland’s ice cap.
We’ve built secret bases under the ice in Greenland - Camp Century.
Pre-AI datacenters used about a third of their electricity for cooling. The higher power density and 24x7 use of expensive assets push that percentage up to as much as 50%. There is nothing more foolish than building an AI facility in Arizona.
But if you build in Greenland next to an enormous glacial river? If your design is clever there’s still a little fluid circulation power needed, but there’s a huge advantage in having all the free cold water.
Ever look at the map of Canadian hydropower? Some of the northernmost units get $0.0025/kwh for their power - a 64x price advantage over the Bay Area. There’s also a cooling advantage, not so much as Greenland, but it’s a MUCH easier environment in which to build. When Canada cut electrical export to the U.S. I expected to see a wave of datacenter construction announced. Hasn’t happened just yet, but it will. The need for data sovereignty is going to become overwhelming.
Greenland is a terrible place to build and just as terrible to staff and operate. But we already built a city under the ice during the early Cold War years. I suspect we are going to do so again.
I could say some things about climate change, but then this would run on for another 10,000 words, and this is just speculation at this point. But keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you see any coverage about Greenland datacenter construction.