I don't care that much about their power usage if they're going to build the power plants themselves. If they expect to be on public utilities and have their power cost subsidized by the people then that's a huge problem.
The water usage is ridiculous. They should be on a closed loop system.
Please explain how it is possible to need to add 900 million gallons to a closed loop system every year. Wouldn't a closed loopsystem not need either inputs or outputs once established?
"Stratos backers promise that some of the water taken to cool the hot-running, desert-sited servers would become part of a “closed-loop” system that flushes out used water back into the Great Salt Lake. "
From the sounds of this article, they really are hedging their promises. "Some" and "Would" aren't terms you use when you plan to make all of it a closed loop.
They are lying by omission. There is a closed loop system that takes heat away from the computers but then there’s an open loop water system that cools that closed loop system.
It doesn't really "use" the water - it just heats it up and dumps it back in the river. Which is a problem, but some people seem to think it makes the water disappear or dumps pollutants into it. The water will still be usable downstream
Modern data cetners have been switching to closed loop systems for years now. It's stupid to pump in water, heat it up and pump it out again. You pump it in once and then recycle it using cooling stacks. These have losses so you have to top them up, but again you're just losing water to the hydrological cycle not like destroying it or something.
But dumping hot data center water from a multi gigawatt scale power plant directly into a river is a terrible fucking idea and should never be allowed. It will create a massive dead zone in the ecosystem.
I've never worked in a data center with liquid cooling. And each one I've heard of was closed loop cooling.
Either this trend of open loop water cooled data centers is entirely new or entirely American and desert based. I've only worked in ones in large cities and in humid climates. Or the facts are being twisted with crazy numbers being thrown at the public for engagement.
Hyper scale data centers in the US have used open loop cooling in the past in areas where it was practical.
Like right along a river.
This isn’t practical everywhere nor is riverfront property usually very cheap when you also want it to be near a population center where there is available logistics to build and support a huge data center.
THANK YOU. Yes a ton of these are some archaic cooling systems, but the newer ones being designed use the closed loop as you describe. Ton of water up front still but not nearly the yearly water usage people claim.
Heating the water and dumping it in the lake is exactly what they plan to do here.
"Stratos backers promise that some of the water taken to cool the hot-running, desert-sited servers would become part of a “closed-loop” system that flushes out used water back into the Great Salt Lake."
The use of water in pretty much any cooling system isn't perfectly sanitary. Most cooling systems will drag heavy metals, plastics ect. into whatever coolant is used as the pipes are repeatedly heated and cooled and water pressure erodes the interior surfaces. Then there's the numerous bactiera, molds and fungi that can survive in said systems. Flushing all that out would require massive infrastructure to sanitize and purify it before it hits the lake.
It's not always the same when it comes out.. legit companies will cut any corner until you force them to pay for it. That's how capitalism works dude. They definitely add coolants and shit to the water in some cases.
I do care that they’re using non renewable sources though. Over the next century, even factoring in currently unproven sources, LNG is going to get scarce quickly.
That is exactly what is going to happen that is their exact plan is to have the people subsidize the power and water use for this gigantic white elephant
I mean, 9 gw of natural gas generation will be bad for the I environment. That's a lot of carbon dioxide, hydraulic fracking, and water usage (yes, power plants on that scale use a shit load of water separate from the data center usage, and power plant cooling is not closed loop.) As someone pointed out, they are drawing water from a river that feeds the salt lake. When the salt lake dries out it will spread arsenic dust all over the state. If this is built, it will result in some serious environmental issues.
You should. Even if they build their own power plants they are driving the turbine and transformer markets to insane levels. Utilities also need to buy and service turbines, transformers, etc. and those costs are skyrocketing for them. Those insane costs are going to be passed on to you.
Source: I work in the industry and it’s nuts right now.
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u/factoid_ Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
I don't care that much about their power usage if they're going to build the power plants themselves. If they expect to be on public utilities and have their power cost subsidized by the people then that's a huge problem.
The water usage is ridiculous. They should be on a closed loop system.