Its external. The massive power and cooling requirements cause massive noise from fans, transformers etc. Funnily enough, the same applies to solar farms.
Never have been near a data center, but walked under windmills: from about 100 meters you hear the “whoom-whoom-whoom” sound, and if you walk right under, it gets uncomfortable because of added vibrations. But it’s nothing terrible and neither it can be heard from a big distance - the noise didn’t make us regret our walk under the windmills - we talked normally under them, etc
So are you/they saying that fossil fuel power plants don’t make as much noise? I would disagree with that.
1: FF plants should also have inverters and transformers, I doubt they make electricity in exactly the way we want on the lines, just like solar.
2: Ff plants have a fuck ton of machinery and people and fumes that are constantly being emitted in addition to the pretty minimal noise from transformers or whatever.
On point 1, as far as I understand, generally since they use fossil fuels to hear water and generate steam to spin turbines, the generators output grid-compatible AC right away
Voltage at the generation end is limited by the practical limits of insulating the windings (coils of wire in the generator that need to be close together but insulated from each other), usually top out about 25 kV for steam or gas turbines. This would usually be stepped up to 275 kV or 400 kV for long distance transmission, then back down to 33 kV for local distribution (at least in the UK).
Different solar panels generate different voltages, also depends on how they’re wired together. Not sure what the big solar parks use, but much lower than a fossil fuel plant for sure. That’s DC, so needs converted to AC and stepped up for transmission. Some smaller solar farms are connected straight into distribution networks.
Both power transformers and DC/AC converters do give off a bit of a hum at 50/60 Hz, but again shouldn’t be anywhere close to the noise of a FF plant.
That’s certainly possible! I don’t know if it’s true or not, since my arguments there are entirely speculative on my end, without any real evidence backing them. I’m currently not able to do any real research to support my claims, so unless this gets more attention, I’ll just leave it at that, speculation
Its external. The massive power and cooling requirements cause massive noise from fans, transformers etc. Funnily enough, the same applies to solar farms.
Never have been near a data center, but walked under windmills: from about 100 meters you hear the “whoom-whoom-whoom” sound, and if you walk right under, it gets uncomfortable because of added vibrations. But it’s nothing terrible and neither it can be heard from a big distance - the noise didn’t make us regret our walk under the windmills - we talked normally under them, etc
Source for solar farms being loud? Why would they need fans or transformers?
CPUs and GPUs also don’t make a sound, but data centers do.
Do you even own a computer?
I assume you must be a troll cuz you can’t be that stupid. Or you have never owned a computer
Heres the first google result.
https://kingswaysolarcommunityaction.co.uk/solar-farm-noise-pollution-uk/
So are you/they saying that fossil fuel power plants don’t make as much noise? I would disagree with that.
1: FF plants should also have inverters and transformers, I doubt they make electricity in exactly the way we want on the lines, just like solar.
2: Ff plants have a fuck ton of machinery and people and fumes that are constantly being emitted in addition to the pretty minimal noise from transformers or whatever.
No im not. Loudest machines I’ve measured so far have been diesels. Most owned by assholes.
On point 1, as far as I understand, generally since they use fossil fuels to hear water and generate steam to spin turbines, the generators output grid-compatible AC right away
Voltage at the generation end is limited by the practical limits of insulating the windings (coils of wire in the generator that need to be close together but insulated from each other), usually top out about 25 kV for steam or gas turbines. This would usually be stepped up to 275 kV or 400 kV for long distance transmission, then back down to 33 kV for local distribution (at least in the UK).
Different solar panels generate different voltages, also depends on how they’re wired together. Not sure what the big solar parks use, but much lower than a fossil fuel plant for sure. That’s DC, so needs converted to AC and stepped up for transmission. Some smaller solar farms are connected straight into distribution networks.
Both power transformers and DC/AC converters do give off a bit of a hum at 50/60 Hz, but again shouldn’t be anywhere close to the noise of a FF plant.
Ahh right, I was wondering if voltage levels would be compatible, that makes sense. Thanks!
That’s certainly possible! I don’t know if it’s true or not, since my arguments there are entirely speculative on my end, without any real evidence backing them. I’m currently not able to do any real research to support my claims, so unless this gets more attention, I’ll just leave it at that, speculation