Big tech does not need fucking subsidies, they should be paying a premium for power, and there should be fucking ads in it.
this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2025
114 points (100.0% liked)
Futurology
3296 readers
1 users here now
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I don't think you understand how this system works.
They exploit us as consumers, and then they use government to transfer money from our incomes to fund their capex.
Idiots still cosplayong free market capitalism in earnest
Is Ireland selling its electricity to the data centers at a discount?🤔
Yeah this is what I'm not understanding about these stories. Why not charge these datacenters according to the pressure they're putting on the power network?
Large high volume purchasing always comes at a discount. It shouldn't for something like energy but it does.
Likely at bulk wholesale rates. So yes, at a discount compared to what the average consumer or business pays.
If there’s not enough electricity to go around, perhaps they shouldn’t do that.
In the states, it’s common for consumers to pay on a sliding scale — the rate increases every X number of kWh you use. It’s not fair that businesses aren’t charged the same.
At least in my area, businesses pay a higher tier than residential customers.
The rationale here is that if you don't give handouts like that to major corporations, they'll go build their data center somewhere they do get handouts. And then you lose the tax income and jobs they generate.
Of course it sucks that the logic works like that but they do have the ball and the shareholders expect them to take it only to the most profitable location.
Imo, instead of giving handouts to corporations, governments should spend that money making their state a nice place to live, and supporting small businesses and entreprenuers. Then lots of smart, hard working people will move there because it is a nice place to live, and make their own businesses to support the local economy.
The fastest solution: if you build a DC that need X MW you have to build also a renewable power station that gives more than X MW.
Data centers is pretty much the only reason we need to build more power in Norway.
That and the fact that the poptarts that runs our government want to use land power to power the oil and gas platforms in the north sea.