Wait until they find out how much water goes into meat and clothing production
this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
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Is there a reason why that water can't be reused?
I always assumed it was for cooling
Data centers reuse water by recirculating the same water through their cooling systems multiple times. According to Google, this practice saves up to 50% of water when compared with “once-through” cooling systems.
However, eventually this reused water needs to be replaced with new water, due to the risk of scale formation or once the conductivity of the water is too high.
The need for new water results from the build-up of scale-forming minerals in the reused water – such as calcium, magnesium, and silica, which become concentrated over multiple evaporative cooling cycles.
Ultimately, the spent data center cooling water can be treated and reused (or recycled) for other purposes such as irrigation or toilet flushing.
Evaporative coolers release the vapor into the atmosphere.
But it doesn't have to be drinking water. Nuclear power plants, for example, often use 3 cooling circuits. The first two are closed loops, in order to avoid the release of radioactive nuclides. The coolant is condensed (using heat exchangers with the next circuit) and recirculated. The last circuit is often just river water or similar that's thrown out after use. Even the evaporated water isn't an issue, since it will fall back as rain somewhere. The atmosphere has a limited capacity to hold water vapor.
My real concern with AI isn't water at all. It's the energy usage. Water (not drinking water) is renewable. The bulk of the electric power supply is not. Perhaps someday, there will be technology to do the training with much less power. But today it's unsustainable. But the big players will keep doing it, since they make money off of it. The incentives are just as perverse as with the crypto mining industry. And just like crypto, AI is headed in a way where a few rich players have all the edge to become even richer, at the expense of regular folks.
it doesn’t have to be drinking water
No, but that is generally what buildings are piped for. Using a simple evaporative cooler and municipal water is the easiest and likely cheapest option.