Megacorps are driving up energy prices for everyone, locals seem powerless to stop these environmentally destructive data centers from draining the water table. All so the magnificent 7 can attempt to capture any remaining attention we have left.
In the past large developments would win over local government support with promises of jobs and investment in the local economy.
Now the only promises are a strained grid, higher energy bills and loud noise. It doesn't help that AI has been falsely attributed as the reason to lay people off in the past few years by CEOs who are actually just cutting costs or moving jobs offshore.
This situation probably gets worse before it gets better for the companies deploying new data centers.
Main "issue" is that evaporative cooling is just ridiculously effective compared to a normal heat exchanger with only air.
You can use water or air internally but then to get rid of the heat from the facility there aren't many choices. You either put it into the air which is cheap, into nearby water bodies which has other environmental concerns, or into the ground which is expensive.
The air is the simplest, cheapest solution and using water for evaporative cooling in dryer climates makes it even better
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[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 23.7 ms ] threadNow the only promises are a strained grid, higher energy bills and loud noise. It doesn't help that AI has been falsely attributed as the reason to lay people off in the past few years by CEOs who are actually just cutting costs or moving jobs offshore.
This situation probably gets worse before it gets better for the companies deploying new data centers.
You can use water or air internally but then to get rid of the heat from the facility there aren't many choices. You either put it into the air which is cheap, into nearby water bodies which has other environmental concerns, or into the ground which is expensive. The air is the simplest, cheapest solution and using water for evaporative cooling in dryer climates makes it even better