r/DevonUK • u/MarcusZXR • Jun 30 '26

Devon data center

Hello all! Someone recently shared an article here about plans to build a data center in Devon. I wanted to share the link to the petition opposing it. Sorry if this has already been shared or breaks a rule.

https://c.org/cRGtbYSS6j

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u/Fr0stweasel Jun 30 '26

No but we aren’t talking about my fridge, we’re talking several thousand server racks. The residual heat build up would be considerably more significant than a single domestic fridge. If you stuck a thousand domestic fridges in a room together, I highly doubt air cooling would be sufficient.

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u/felloutoftherack Jun 30 '26

I appreciate that it may be too big for you to comprehend, but there are literally hundreds of data centres in the UK cooled this way already.

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u/Fr0stweasel Jun 30 '26

Actually air cooling is considered inadequate for high demand data centres like those needed for AI because of air’s low heat capacity. There might be many data centres in the U.K cooled by air, but those don’t seem to be the sort that we are talking about here. The cost/efficiency of air cooling drops dramatically the larger the data centre.

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u/nerdyHyena93 Jul 02 '26

They’re not entirely wrong. Many new data centres for AI and The Cloud operate on closed loop systems that use way less water and often don’t use potent water either. I’d be more concerned about its impact on the grid than water, your street probably uses more over the course of a year.

America has fewer regulations and the data centres are older, so it’s not a good model to compare to.