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Wow that's a lot of water... something that doesn't get mentioned in the article - what's the temperature of the waste water, and where is it going? Because, fo

Wow that's a lot of water... something that doesn't get mentioned in the article - what's the temperature of the waste water, and where is it going? Because, for example, if you are putting that water back into streams and the river at a higher temp, that's going to impact aquatic life...definitely the kind of use of public resources that needs to be fully disclosed to the public. Would be interesting to understand if Facebook is using similar amounts of water over in Prineville (not really all that far from The Dalles...), especially given reports that central Oregon water districts are having issues with their wells...

dredmorbius 4y ago
Details on data centre water use by both modality and quantity are ... curiously difficult to find. I'd turned up several blathery but largely uninformative posts. This one describes use in cooling, and by reference to closed-loop water cooling as an alternative, I suspect that open-loop evaporative cooling towers or systems account for much of the usage. Which would suggest also that the water isn't discharged, per se, but evaporated into the local atmosphere: Data centers that are located in central cities can use water-cooled chillers that work with the CRAH. It is also most effective for a low-humidity environment with higher temperatures and adequate water sources. It is installed within the facility that is connected with the condenser water loops. In the water-cooled chillers, the water evaporates through the cooling tower. This results in consistent demand for water to replace the evaporated one. With this, it is also referred to as an “Open Loop Cooling System”. This does not contribute to the overall data center Water Usage Effectiveness. <https://www.akcp.com/articles/water-usage-effectiveness-towards-data-center-sustainability/ https://www.akcp.com/articles/water-usage-effectiveness-towa...>

dredmorbius 4y ago

Details on data centre water use by both modality and quantity are ... curiously difficult to find. I'd turned up several blathery but largely uninformative posts. This one describes use in cooling, and by reference to closed-loop water cooling as an alternative, I suspect that open-loop evaporative cooling towers or systems account for much of the usage. Which would suggest also that the water isn't discharged, per se, but evaporated into the local atmosphere: Data centers that are located in central cities can use water-cooled chillers that work with the CRAH. It is also most effective for a low-humidity environment with higher temperatures and adequate water sources. It is installed within the facility that is connected with the condenser water loops. In the water-cooled chillers, the water evaporates through the cooling tower. This results in consistent demand for water to replace the evaporated one. With this, it is also referred to as an “Open Loop Cooling System”. This does not contribute to the overall data center Water Usage Effectiveness. <https://www.akcp.com/articles/water-usage-effectiveness-towards-data-center-sustainability/ https://www.akcp.com/articles/water-usage-effectiveness-towa...>