This is not an isolated case in the United States, a country that concentrates
approximately 30% of all the data centers in the world. Arizona, Utah and South
Carolina are well aware of the insatiable thirst of this type of infrastructure.
They are also familiar with it in the Netherlands, where Microsoft was involved
in a scandal last year when news broke out that one of its facilities consumed
four times more water than declared in a context of drought. Or in Germany,
where Brandenburg authorities denied Google permission to build a data center in
the region, as a Tesla gigafactory was already consuming too much water.
If it make you feel better, they could do it all with one closed loop and just use the ground as the sink.
I don’t how that should make me feel any better 😀 . But I don’t know if ground is a good enough sink for that.
They could then power it entirely off solar panels and Iron air or sodium batteries.
I don’t think they’re going to consider renewables for cooling alone when the entire operation needs enormous amounts of power that cannot be satisfied by renewables.
They’d cool their servers with the blood of children if it saved them money.
I don’t how that should make me feel any better 😀 . But I don’t know if ground is a good enough sink for that.
The ground temp in Utah for instance is like 50 degrees F roughly all year long. Coiling tubing under the parking lots of these facilities should be enough to remove all the heat and potentially melt all the snow during the winter.
I don’t think they’re going to consider renewables for cooling alone when the entire operation needs enormous amounts of power that cannot be satisfied by renewables.
I’m not talking for cooling but powering the servers. Something renewables could do if they don’t have to power air conditioning for the servers.
I don’t how that should make me feel any better 😀 . But I don’t know if ground is a good enough sink for that.
I don’t think they’re going to consider renewables for cooling alone when the entire operation needs enormous amounts of power that cannot be satisfied by renewables.
Amen to that! Like I said - perverse incentives.
The ground temp in Utah for instance is like 50 degrees F roughly all year long. Coiling tubing under the parking lots of these facilities should be enough to remove all the heat and potentially melt all the snow during the winter.
I’m not talking for cooling but powering the servers. Something renewables could do if they don’t have to power air conditioning for the servers.