They’re rapidly being converted into generators to meet A.I.’s insatiable demand for electricity. Environmentalists call it a step backward.
Doesn’t jet engines still use leaded fuel?
Aside from the fact that these are built for max. thrust and not max. efficiency, I think lead should be the primary concern here
This is crazy, right?
Capitalism
This is what happens when companies are incentivized to turn on data centers fast above any kind of environmental protection or efficiency goal.
and allowed to, even encouraged. it’s just fucking crazy.
Yeah it is. Nuclear power and renewables should do this.
For real. Most likely those planes were retired for their inefficiency. Now its totally fine to turn the engines into generators - rather than using clean sources of energy. What are we playing at.
For real. Most likely those planes were retired for their inefficiency.
Probably not just for inefficiency. There are many expensive wearable parts whose life are measured in hours of operation for flightworthiness. Once these reach the end of their certified life they have to be replaced before being certified for flight again (periodic engine overhaul). I could see a bunch of these be still running engines, but the cost of a certified overhaul to carry people is too expensive. However a stationary engine attached to a generator, in a farm of generators, breaking down is an annoyance, not nationwide news and a lawsuit from the families of the survivors.
I can’t get my head round all this speed running to destruction.
Top name btw.
I was just wondering what would be the most expensive question you can ask AI in a free tier.
Lets put those engines to work and have a little more deficit.
We’ll pay for that waste in the carbon release.
Yes, but he free tier becomes too expensive to maintain and they have to end it or restrict it, AI will have much harder time to get properly mainstream.
to power data centers
To power shitty datacenters built by future defendants, you mean?
defendants? do you mean left appropriation of strange fruit?
Wow this can’t be efficient. Jet engines are primarily designed to produce thrust. But looks like Musk got special permission from the state to pollute more, so all’s good!
It is. Jet engines are very efficient. But they also have to run high to reach that efficiency. But if you’re running at high power for most of the time, like a jet aircraft or datacenter generator, then it makes sense. It doesn’t matter whether your turbine shaft is connected to a fan or an electric generator rotor.
That’s true, it’s not as bad as I was originally thinking. However, there’s probably a reason traditional power plants never use jet engines for power production. According to this article, “But repurposed aircraft turbines tend to be less efficient and more polluting than engines designed for conventional gas-burning plants.”
However, there’s probably a reason traditional power plants never use jet engines for power production.
They don’t use used jet engines, no. But a gas turbine for a gas power plant shares many engineering principles with jet engines, and often many shared parts.
And generally, for stationary plants, the heat of the exhaust can be used to boil steam and get another cycle’s worth of work out of the heat, for even greater efficiency.
This isn’t something new. Jet engines have been converted to power use for decades because once they are beyond the aircraft service life they are still useful for generating power
really needs to be killed and all his sons sterilized.
Not really, the core of a modern turbofan produces rotational energy to drive the fan, the hot part of the engine produces little to no thrust.
Interesting economic approach to offset the (at least.) $22 billion deficit.
Guys they’re just recycling old jet engines, isn’t that what we wanted?! More recycling!
/s
Since jet fuel is a very similar grade of fuel to diesel, is this where all the diesel is going and why diesel prices are astronomical now? I know the wars are also not helping, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is contributing too.
They don’t run on jetfuel once converted, either natural gas or diesel. Diesel costs a fortune compared to natural gas in a gas turbine.
I work for a gas turbine OEM and almost exclusively our turbines run on gas with diesel as a backup fuel supply in case of a supply side shortage.
However in this market who knows, they probably can tanker in diesel ASAP rather than waiting for natural gas infrastructure.
I interviewed for a company working on this project. Their goal is still jet fuel but with greatly increased efficiency by replacing components traditionally driven by the shaft (such as the intake and compressor) with electrically driven systems that in turn take load off of the generator. The net increase in efficiency more than balances out the cost of the electrically driven components, thus increasing the efficiency of the entire system.
Feels like an engineering wet dream, but i was willing to take their money and tell them how smart they sounded lol predictably, the project is waiting on more funding
Fair enough. The article says they’re being converted to Diesel fuel though.
Contributing, yes. In a meaningful way to prices, no. Both the supply and transportation (boats, routes, pipes) of fuel have been reduced.
You are months outdated. The oil volume is back to normal long ago. What drives prices now is risk/volatility and insurance rates sailing into the gulf.
Diesel is expensive because of the war in the middle east. Anything else is a rounding error next to that.
Who doesn’t love hearing jet engines blasting 24/7 in their neighborhood?
I lived in a city with an air force base for a while. People had bumper stickers pointing out that they “Love Jet Noise” and that it is the sound of freedom.
The “I love Jet Noise” bumper stickers were the first thing I thought of.
Giving yourself Alzheimer’s to own the libs
