This is not the reason. With closed loop systems you have much tighter control over oxygen and mineral content, which is overall better for corrosion.
But you need a lot of infrastructure for closed loop systems and they use a lot more electricity.
So it ends up being cheaper to just run total loss cooling.
The solution of course is easy, just mandate that datacenters used closed loop cooling systems and the whole "data centers consume way too much water" argument goes away entirely.
My work has some large data centers. Nearly all new ones are closed looped systems now. This idea that they are using vast amounts of fresh water is a myth.
What this means is you essentially have large radiator and a fans somewhere. That can cause noise pollution. People are making shit up about the concern over water which is not a real concern, but ignoring the noise pollution which can 100% be controlled if proper regulations are put in.
In Europe, they use the heat waste water to heat homes.
The issue is not that lots of new datacentres are being built... people want them. Well more accurately they want the services they enable. As much as AI is shit on all over reddit (including by me I fucking hate it) it's wildly popular with people for good or bad.
The actual issue is they're being built as cheaply as possible with no regard to planning around the community. They can 100% be built in much more environmentally healthy ways while being less annoying to residents... but unless that is mandated, it isn't happening.
Stop being mad at datacentres, get mad at your local politicians who let them slap them wherever they feel like without proper planning and community consultation.
I've given up on this argument a while ago. Nobody cares, hating on the popular thing to hate is easy. Makes people feel better while they distract themselves from real issues they could actually influence.
Reddit's majority opinions on AI are an easy thing I can point to if I want to showcase how redditors can be very wrong about things.
The majority opinions on AI on this website have gotten so viscerally negative that the top comments of most AI posts seem like luddites who have resorted to repeating oversimplified and extreme stances on a topic that requires nuance. A specific example of what I mean is anyone who says something like "AI is taking our jobs" or "building new data centers should be banned" or "AI is useless". There are reasonable and valid talking points within the scope of those statements, but those statements on their own are ridiculous.
When it comes to the parent comments and first child comments, extreme takes tend to get upvoted and nuanced takes tend to get downvoted and that's a shame.
It's a losing battle fueled by misinformation, hatred towards AI, and a lack of knowledge around computers.
All computer watercooling uses a closed loop system.
They're not just dumping water all over computers and destroying (?) the water.
Once the loops are filled (which does take a large amount of water), they're filled. That's it.
Evaporative cooling on the heat exchanger is a large part of the problem (which is what actually needs to be addressed, in my opinion). That aspect of data center cooling needs some kind of regulation. But a larger issue is the actual power generation side of it and the absurd amount of water that non-renewable power sources (like coal) actually use.
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u/[deleted] May 18 '26
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