Take this for what it is worth.
I asked DeepSeek an ai chatbot, about the data center water consumption problems that people are protesting about.
Regardless of whether what Deepseek says is true or not, I would rather not have a Datacenter in my backyard. I only wanted to seek the truth about the water issues.
Here is my conversation with DeepSeek.
Yes, a significant portion of new data centers, especially those designed for AI, are being built with either waterless cooling systems or closed-loop systems that do not consume water for daily operations.
Here is the breakdown of what is being deployed and why this shift is happening:
✅ The New Standard: Waterless & Closed-Loop Systems
Your understanding is correct—the industry is actively moving away from older, water-hungry cooling towers. The two primary approaches being deployed in new facilities are:
1. Waterless Cooling Systems These systems use air or a closed-loop refrigerant to remove heat, consuming zero water for cooling. They are a direct response to water scarcity concerns and community opposition.
- Real-World Example: Edged US has secured approval for its second waterless AI data center campus in Irving, Texas. The company states this single facility will save more than 92 million gallons of water per year compared to conventional designs. They are building similar waterless campuses across the U.S., including in Phoenix (an arid region) and Chicago.
2. Closed-Loop Cooling Systems These systems recycle the same water repeatedly in a sealed loop, meaning they do not consume fresh water for daily operations.
- How They Work: Unlike traditional systems that lose water to evaporation, closed-loop systems function more like a car's radiator. The water circulates continuously to absorb heat and then releases it, with virtually no loss.
- Industry Adoption: Major water technology companies like Gradiant are now deploying closed-loop systems specifically for large-scale hyperscale data centers.
📈 The Industry Trends Driving This Shift
| Feature | Older/Traditional Systems | Modern Systems (Waterless/Closed-Loop) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Water Consumption | Consumes millions of gallons daily via evaporation | Zero consumption for cooling (WUE of 0.00) | | Cooling Method | Cooling towers that rely on evaporative cooling | Air cooling or sealed, recirculating liquid loops | | Why the Shift? | Inefficient; major source of community opposition in water-stressed regions | Required for high-density AI chips; improves energy efficiency; eliminates water concerns |
💡 Important Distinction: "Waterless" vs. "Closed-Loop"
While the terms are often used interchangeably to mean "water-saving," there is a slight difference:
- Waterless (Air Cooling): Uses fans and refrigerants to cool the IT equipment directly, with zero water involved in the heat removal process.
- Closed-Loop (Liquid Cooling): Uses water or a specialized fluid, but it is sealed in a pipe system that is constantly recycled. While the loop may contain water, the system consumes no water because it does not rely on evaporation.
Both achieve the same goal of eliminating the daily, consumptive water loss associated with old cooling towers.
🔍 How to Tell What a New Center is Using
If you want to verify the approach for a specific planned data center, look for these key terms in their announcements or environmental reports:
- "Waterless cooling" or "Zero-water cooling" : This is the clearest indicator of a system with no consumptive use.
- "Closed-loop cooling system" : This means they are recycling the same water, not consuming fresh supplies.
- "Direct-to-chip liquid cooling" : Often used in a closed loop to cool the most powerful AI processors.
- Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) : A metric reported by many large operators. A WUE of 0.00 L/kWh is the target for waterless or closed-loop systems.
The shift to waterless and closed-loop systems is a direct response to both the technical demands of AI chips and the public's concern over water shortages. This means the "planned data centers" you are asking about are very likely using one of these modern, water-efficient methods.
I hope this information is helpful. Would you like to know about the efficiency of these new cooling systems in terms of energy use?
I have been thinking about this for awhile. When some nutjob (in the past at least) has expressed that they are disappointed because the assassin missed our beloved DJT. We would put pressure on their employer and usually got them fired.
Well after awhile they will start looking for work again.
How can we as a group make it easy for a new employer to find out about this nutjob and choose not to hire them?
Tim Walz tried to stare down a cheeseburger. The cheeseburger won. Tim apologized to it for three weeks and offered it free tampons.
When Tim Walz does push-ups, he doesn’t lift himself up. The ground just gets tired of holding his feelings and lowers itself out of pity.
Tim Walz once tried to grill a steak. The steak flipped him instead. Now it identifies as medium-rare and demands pronouns.
Tim Walz rounded up a herd of feral cats in Minnesota. They formed a union, went on strike, and made him their emotional support human.
Tim Walz can’t open child-proof bottles. The child-proof bottles open themselves just so they don’t have to deal with him.
Tim Walz attempted to mansplain something to his wife. She gave him a 30-second TED Talk on why that was problematic. He’s still in timeout.
Tim Walz once entered a hot wing eating contest. He tapped out after the first mild wing because it was “aggressively spicy” and hurt his truth.
Tim Walz tried to deadlift 135 pounds. The barbell filed a restraining order and the gym installed a safe space just for him.
When Tim Walz plays chess, the king steps down voluntarily. It says it’s tired of carrying someone who keeps offering the queen as a “gesture of allyship.”
Tim Walz once told a dad joke. The punchline filed for divorce and took the kids.
Grok helped me.
After 7 months of Trump siccing Homan on them. They are still unconcerned and everywhere I look. Today my wife and I went out for breakfast at a nice restaurant, and a nearby table had 4 middle aged women loudly speaking in Spanish.
How should we deal with this, they need the fear of God put in them.
We are unable to deport criminal aliens without years of due process? wtf?
The DS is going to run out the clock, like they always do.
Title says it all.
I have tried multiple times to request my account back since Musk took over, to no avail.
I propose an amendment to the constitution, that any official or employee, federal, state or local that attempts to abridge someone's freedom of speech if convicted in a court of law, requires the death penalty and no parole is allowed.
Our company is likely to have a major layoff soon. And one of my co-workers and friend has his ear to the ground.
He found some interesting tidbits. I will quote them here. There is no sauce, only observation.
If you also didn’t know DEI isn’t what it looks like surface level. It allows big companies to avoid paying talent. almost purely
...
bunch of amazon and google emails leaked saying it was amazing for denying pay and minimizing union anything’s
Thank you, please return to doom scrolling
RE: Trump arraignment.
I am no lawyer, Trump and his lawyers will confer. But, I am thinking, Bragg may not be NOT ready to go to trial. So if Trump uses his right to a speedy trial, he may win by default.
Any comments?
Mine was suspended back in the day of mass banning. A week or so after Musk took over I asked to be reinstated. I have not heard anything from them.
With the advent of companies transporting employees to abortion friendly states, and I am sure schools will be doing the same for the children. In the pro life states, we should pass laws that transporting a women/girl for an abortion is conspiracy to commit murder. That will put a cold bucket of water on that.
Has anyone seen this issue but me?
My account was permanently suspended for breaking the rules, which means I was making Q and other conservative postings.
I am a techie. And the tech world is freaking about Trump's new social media site.
But as far as I know it is not functional even as a beta to outsiders. Please correct me if I am wrong.
So anyway one of the tech sites I frequent has posts like this:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=21/10/26/1437211
Where they are in essence saying that the site is violating various copyright rules.
My take on it is:
- Where is it public that they could even review it?
- Is it a big fake to bait them, and a real site is coming out that is different than what they are talking about?
Any comments?
X22 and others think it maybe likely that Biden will ascend on the 20th. In that case Trump is fully out of the picture, if he acts it would be treason, and he is all about the rule of law. So that is not likely. If the military acts post Biden inauguration, then they are committing treason, and that seems unlikely and easily countered by Biden himself. Likely Harris will immediately use the 25th amendment on Biden, but that does not affect us or not. So what do you think?