Non c’è abbastanza acqua per i piani dei datacenter del Regno Unito, dice l’ente commerciale
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/21/not-enough-water-for-uks-datacentre-plans-trade-body-says
di jimmythemini
Non c’è abbastanza acqua per i piani dei datacenter del Regno Unito, dice l’ente commerciale
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/21/not-enough-water-for-uks-datacentre-plans-trade-body-says
di jimmythemini
25 commenti
It’s okay, permanent hosepipe bans for all households
Maybe all the various privatised water companies could get their shit together? Is that not an option for some reason?
Perhaps there’s an obvious reason for it, but why can’t data centres use a closed cooling system that doesn’t require a continuous supply of fresh water?
Or is it just about cost?
Just have the datacentres fill their cooling demands through using sewage & waste water while cleaning that waste water at the same time.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/09/worlds-first-wind-powered-underwater-datacentre-starts-operating-in-china
We’ve developed Graphene based water filters which would revolutionise the entire world if they were implemented.
But then the cost of supply would be almost nothing, the economy would tank, no one could get rich off water and there’d be infinite supply.
They’re so good you can literally pump cold sea water and achieve 99% pure in seconds. It even removes Uranium.
Unfortunately it’s a level of technology so good it’s like free energy, we have no idea how to introduce it whilst still propping up billionaires, so we don’t.
Plenty of water in the UK, they just need to build them in Northumbria, Scotland or Wales. There’s not much water around Heathrow.
We live on an island surrounded by the sea, which they say is rising due to climate change, and they say there is a water shortage
plenty of water n the uk they need to just stop wasting it. Put a data centre in cumbria it bloody chucks it down all year.
They should have to pay up front a shit load of money toward repairing the uk water infrastructure, then they should be told they need to process their own dirty water from river or sea to use to cool their bastard datacentre
Then once they’ve built it all and it is running we should nationalise it and dump Peter thiel overboard into the north sea in mid january
Do what China are doing and build at sea. We’re a small island and wasting too much land and resource as it is.
There are already hosepipe bans in some areas. This is fucking crazy. We’re replacing real flowers with digital ones. Fucking build more reservoirs already!
Can anyone explain why they even want to build AI data centres in the UK?
We have some of the most expensive energy in the world, latency doesn’t seem to matter much and we’re nearish enough to places like Iceland where there’s pretty much unlimited supply of geothermal energy and Amsterdam where there’s already a shit ton of data centres.
They still don’t know how much of _any_ of this build out will be profitable? I’ve just got a feel we’ll find out in 10 years time that they’ve funneled millions in local tax money into some grift BlackRock told them would make them rich and provide hundreds of jobs that won’t exist.
whatever came of those underwater datacentre tests? not scalable or are the techbros just desperate to clog up the country with these things before the bubble bursts?
Perhaps build them where there is plenty of water?
The rivers humber and thames has plenty of passive water
tl;dr – Fears are that dry cooling (which uses very little water but more electricity) with hybrid models (that mostly use Dry cooling all year round except for the very hottest days of the year, using more water over electricity like air cooling ) will incentivise operators to take advantage of cheaper water due to electricity being so expensive. Air cooling is only worth it over Dry in hot climates, but requires a lot of water. The UK not being that climate.
The issue being that despite the temperate UK being excellent for dry cooling, is undermined by electricity costs. The linked paper actually explains all this but clickbait gonna clickbait.
So clearly, the drive should be to make electricity cheaper.
If only we lived on a planet that was mainly water…
Uses a fraction of water compared to a golf course supposedly. So I’m going to call BS here
We are surrounded by the fucking stuff. Also, might be an idea to consider other liquids to cool DC’S
Why do they treat excess heat as a waste product? Build your data center next to an industry that needs excess heat.
Plenty of water in the Thames; there’s a big useless old building next to Big Ben they could build a data centre on.
(Might happen if Burnham moves parliament to Manchester 😂 )
/s ….of course.
Just put them on the coast and use salt water with heat exchangers. We’re an islands ffs, and while you’re at it force them to build their own renewable power sources or have to pay into a fund that builds green power.
It might not be as efficient but if they use close non-evaporative cooling then water isn’t a problem. That or build it near a coast and tell them to desalinate their own water
Well then let’s not have data centres? I rather live then serve AI
I’m sure they will pay for desalination plants just to get it done. We are an ai obsessed world atm