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OpenAI says China ran a covert campaign to turn Americans against data centers, but used facts that happen to be true (www.techspot.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world
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[–] 5 points 3 months ago (6 children)

Data centers typically use evaporative cooling, so the water is consumed (released into the air). If they used closed loop systems it would be different.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

    Typically? Maybe in some arid climates without humidity but try using evaporative cooling during a thunderstorm and you'll find your data center shutting down from overheating.

    70% A large part of water usage in industrial nations comes from electricity generation. That's where data centers consume most of their water.

    Edit: 70% is only true for Canada, globally agriculture consumes more. The US for example has ~40% each for agriculture and power generation.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Could you elaborate on the 70% figure? A quick search returns multiple hits suggesting the 70% number is actually related to agriculture, not electricity production. See e.g. here.

    Or did you mean 70% of the water used be data centers?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Oh, you're right. I used the Wikipedia article as source and it said:

    Distribution of this use among sectors was: thermoelectric power generation 66.2%, manufacturing 13.6%, residential 9.0%, agriculture 4.7%, commercial and institutional 2.7%, water treatment and distribution systems 2.3%, mining 1.1%, and oil and gas extraction 0.5%.

    Yet the previous sentence said this was about Canada. Whoops.

    Though in Europe and North America, where a big chunk of data centers are typically built, agriculture tends to have a lower share with industry (including but not limited to power generation) having a bigger one:

    https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-stress

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  • [–] -4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Data centers typically use evaporative cooling,

    Yeah so do lawns.

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