4 ms·

It goes back into the river, of course.

shagie 4y ago
It uses evaporative cooling. https://thatoregonlife.com/2021/09/google-to-expand-data-center-and-water-consumption-in-the-dalles-oregon/ https://thatoregonlife.com/2021/09/google-to-expand-data-cen... Note the picture: The water vapor mist from Data Center cooling towers at night https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/the-dalles/ https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/the-dalle... > Water vapor rises above the cooling towers in The Dalles data center in Oregon. These plumes of water vapor create a quiet mist at dusk. That is water that isn't being released back to the river, or reservoir, or aquifer (from which it came). -- edit another source, though a bit old: https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/10/01/google-discloses-energy-usage-data-cont https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/10/01/goog... > Data center cooling is usually the area where the greatest savings can be realized. That's true for Google, which describes its use of evaporative cooling techniques, and provides a diagram of the workings of one of the cooling towers at its data center in The Dalles, Oregon. Still, the evaporative cooling towers are the things that are there and take water from the ground and turn it into steam, released into the air.
- throwaway09223 4y ago
  Yeah, it looks like some (most?) water is evaporated -- but a significant portion is also returned to the river. I saw elsewhere that google "consumes" around 4x as much water for hydroelectric power generation as they use for cooling. Hydroelectric will return essentially all the water back to the source.
  - shagie 4y ago
    The water from the river is regulated at a federal level - https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2021/11/why-does-google-need-so-much-water-in-the-dalles-and-wheres-coming-from-qa.html https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2021/11/why-does-g... > Google’s data centers are right by the Columbia River. Why can’t the company just get its water out of the river? > Federal law strictly governs water use from rivers. Anderson says withdrawals from the Columbia generally aren’t permitted. > There are exceptions in cases where waters users can provide a “bucket for bucket replacement” of any water they pull out, Anderson told a city council meeting in September. In such a case, though, a water user would have to find water to put into the Columbia someplace else to compensate for water being pulled out by the city, or by Google. So, if Google was to use Columbia river water, condense it, and then return exactly the amount that it took it, there wouldn't be an issue. Instead, Goole is using water from the aquifer ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Plateau_Aquifer_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Plateau_Aquifer_Syste... ) where it is getting depleted: > Areas where groundwater depletion is a concern are in the Umatilla area, and the Palouse slope. In the Umatilla area, total decline since the 1970s is from 300 ft to 100 ft of water height. Overall, between 1968-2009, mean groundwater decline across the aquifer system was at 1.0 ft/year. The Dalles is part of the Umatilla syncline (see page 9 https://people.wou.edu/~taylors/g473/gonthier_1985.pdf https://people.wou.edu/~taylors/g473/gonthier_1985.pdf ).
    - throwaway09223 4y ago
      Ah, that makes sense, thank you. I assumed Google was using river water.

It uses evaporative cooling. https://thatoregonlife.com/2021/09/google-to-expand-data-center-and-water-consumption-in-the-dalles-oregon/ https://thatoregonlife.com/2021/09/google-to-expand-data-cen... Note the picture: The water vapor mist from Data Center cooling towers at night https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/the-dalles/ https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/the-dalle... > Water vapor rises above the cooling towers in The Dalles data center in Oregon. These plumes of water vapor create a quiet mist at dusk. That is water that isn't being released back to the river, or reservoir, or aquifer (from which it came). -- edit another source, though a bit old: https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/10/01/google-discloses-energy-usage-data-cont https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/10/01/goog... > Data center cooling is usually the area where the greatest savings can be realized. That's true for Google, which describes its use of evaporative cooling techniques, and provides a diagram of the workings of one of the cooling towers at its data center in The Dalles, Oregon. Still, the evaporative cooling towers are the things that are there and take water from the ground and turn it into steam, released into the air.

throwaway09223 4y ago
Yeah, it looks like some (most?) water is evaporated -- but a significant portion is also returned to the river. I saw elsewhere that google "consumes" around 4x as much water for hydroelectric power generation as they use for cooling. Hydroelectric will return essentially all the water back to the source.
- shagie 4y ago
  The water from the river is regulated at a federal level - https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2021/11/why-does-google-need-so-much-water-in-the-dalles-and-wheres-coming-from-qa.html https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2021/11/why-does-g... > Google’s data centers are right by the Columbia River. Why can’t the company just get its water out of the river? > Federal law strictly governs water use from rivers. Anderson says withdrawals from the Columbia generally aren’t permitted. > There are exceptions in cases where waters users can provide a “bucket for bucket replacement” of any water they pull out, Anderson told a city council meeting in September. In such a case, though, a water user would have to find water to put into the Columbia someplace else to compensate for water being pulled out by the city, or by Google. So, if Google was to use Columbia river water, condense it, and then return exactly the amount that it took it, there wouldn't be an issue. Instead, Goole is using water from the aquifer ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Plateau_Aquifer_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Plateau_Aquifer_Syste... ) where it is getting depleted: > Areas where groundwater depletion is a concern are in the Umatilla area, and the Palouse slope. In the Umatilla area, total decline since the 1970s is from 300 ft to 100 ft of water height. Overall, between 1968-2009, mean groundwater decline across the aquifer system was at 1.0 ft/year. The Dalles is part of the Umatilla syncline (see page 9 https://people.wou.edu/~taylors/g473/gonthier_1985.pdf https://people.wou.edu/~taylors/g473/gonthier_1985.pdf ).
  - throwaway09223 4y ago
    Ah, that makes sense, thank you. I assumed Google was using river water.