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In the USA, data centres consume about 164 billion gallons of water annually [1] Irrigation consumes 118 billion gallons per day [1] and thermoelectric power p

In the USA, data centres consume about 164 billion gallons of water annually [1] Irrigation consumes 118 billion gallons per day [1] and thermoelectric power plants a further 133 billion gallons per day. There's enormous amounts, and there's enormous amounts. If you really want to get mad about water being wasted, look up what californian alfalfa growers pay for their water. [1] https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-consumption https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-co... [2] https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2018/3035/fs20183035.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2018/3035/fs20183035.pdf

rapatel0 9mo ago
New datacenter projects are usually closed loop now. From your first citation: > Closed-loop cooling systems enable the reuse of both recycled wastewater and freshwater, allowing water supplies to be used multiple times. A cooling tower can use external air to cool the heated water, allowing it to return to its original temperature. These systems can reduce freshwater use by up to 70%.
- quickthrowman 9mo ago
  Citation please, I don’t buy it. Evaporative cooling towers almost double the efficiency of heat rejection vs a closed loop system. I don’t see any data center operator giving up those operating cost efficiency gains just to save some water, but I could be wrong.
  - rapatel0 9mo ago
    As i stated, It's literally in the first link from the OP.
    - quickthrowman 9mo ago
      Yeah, I still don’t buy it. No data center operator is going to use almost twice as much electricity to operate their cooling system if they could install evaporative cooling towers and almost double the efficiency of heat rejection. You can remove 7W of heat for 1W of electricity with a cooling tower, it’s 4W for 1W with a closed loop system. I could see them doing it in a humid area where you can barely get any cooling from evaporation due to the air being satured, but that only covers the Deep South and Florida in the US. I don’t care if some company operating data centers claim that they’re aiming for closed loop cooling systems when the economics favor open loop cooling. Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome, the incentive to increase profit by using cooling towers will beat out the abstract good feeling you get from not using evaporative cooling towers and paying almost twice as much to reject heat from your data center which you only operate to make a profit.
margalabargala 9mo ago
It's not a question of quantity but of distribution. I'm not defending the waste of water that is growing alfalfa in the desert for export, but there are plenty of places datacenters are built where the water they use is impactful. They can both be bad. Unlike the legal mess that is US irrigation water rights, data centers are also a lot easier to do something about.

rapatel0 9mo ago

New datacenter projects are usually closed loop now. From your first citation: > Closed-loop cooling systems enable the reuse of both recycled wastewater and freshwater, allowing water supplies to be used multiple times. A cooling tower can use external air to cool the heated water, allowing it to return to its original temperature. These systems can reduce freshwater use by up to 70%.

quickthrowman 9mo ago
Citation please, I don’t buy it. Evaporative cooling towers almost double the efficiency of heat rejection vs a closed loop system. I don’t see any data center operator giving up those operating cost efficiency gains just to save some water, but I could be wrong.
- rapatel0 9mo ago
  As i stated, It's literally in the first link from the OP.
  - quickthrowman 9mo ago
    Yeah, I still don’t buy it. No data center operator is going to use almost twice as much electricity to operate their cooling system if they could install evaporative cooling towers and almost double the efficiency of heat rejection. You can remove 7W of heat for 1W of electricity with a cooling tower, it’s 4W for 1W with a closed loop system. I could see them doing it in a humid area where you can barely get any cooling from evaporation due to the air being satured, but that only covers the Deep South and Florida in the US. I don’t care if some company operating data centers claim that they’re aiming for closed loop cooling systems when the economics favor open loop cooling. Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome, the incentive to increase profit by using cooling towers will beat out the abstract good feeling you get from not using evaporative cooling towers and paying almost twice as much to reject heat from your data center which you only operate to make a profit.

margalabargala 9mo ago

It's not a question of quantity but of distribution. I'm not defending the waste of water that is growing alfalfa in the desert for export, but there are plenty of places datacenters are built where the water they use is impactful. They can both be bad. Unlike the legal mess that is US irrigation water rights, data centers are also a lot easier to do something about.