Yet another Hacker News

New Jersey fines data center $1.1M after drone pics expose 62 gas generators

36 points voxadam 2 hours ago 12 comments

bell-cot 2 hours ago | parent

> ... first spotted ‘some type of unit’ on satellite imagery ...

> According to the NYT, the “tractor-trailer-size” generators were “impossible to miss” and certainly were not there when inspectors last visited in December 2025.

Just how lax is NJ's regulation, for violations to be noticed from space, after a billion-dollar construction project received no inspections for 9 months?

cyanydeez 1 hour ago | parent

Commercial photography costs money. Hard to reconcile how public goods are all in private hands, but new jersey ain't launching satellites, they're also not going to buy daily satellite images.

bell-cot 1 hour ago | parent

If NJ's inspectors can't be bothered to visit a site this large for 9 months, then would it do any good for the photography to be magically free?

If NJ's inspectors are honest, competent, and numerous enough to actually do the job, then would cheap drones be good enough to provide quick "big picture" views?

cousinbryce 1 hour ago | parent

Hard to bribe satellites, easy to bribe NJ inspectors

dpoloncsak 30 minutes ago | parent

Yearly audits seem fair, no?

gamblor956 28 minutes ago | parent

Inspections are annual unless they receive complaints. This is normal. It works that way in the private world as well.

sagarm 1 hour ago | parent

> transitioning to low emission quiet fuel cells

Does this technology even exist? The lies are getting more brazen.

VogonPoetry 34 minutes ago | parent

Bloom Energy makes fuel cells that can run on natural gas. This site would need a very large number of them to replace gas generators. Each "bloom box" can create 325kW and are about 1m x 1m x 2m in size.

They make sort of whine/squeal noise when operating. Not sure of the dB level.

San Jose Ice Rink has had a bunch of these installed out back for about 10 years I think.

nancyminusone 31 minutes ago | parent

Well, most of the results on google images for "natural gas fuel cell" are of renderings or diagrams instead of actual equipment, that sould say something. Probably that they arent very common.

lovich 25 minutes ago | parent

1.1 million dollars and they are still allowed to run the gas generators?

I think this is inaccurately called a fine when it sounds like a retroactively applied permit fee to operate.

herewego 23 minutes ago | parent

A $1.1M fine is a laughable penalty to a data center operator. Meanwhile, DataOne is allowed to operate the gas generators while they pursue permits... good job NJ.

xrd 6 minutes ago | parent

Wasn't colossus (Musk/grok) data center in Nashville powered by gas generators? And, xai just ignored the environmental regulation preventing it? Am I misremembering?