When I was a web developer I definitely drank about that much a day. Whenever anybody was bored with what they were doing they would just go make a kettle as an excuse to bunk off for a bit.
The thing is the 1% think that they can do that. But if they did everyone would just die and then they would have no money. It's like the idiotic bunker plans to survive the end of the world, what's their long-term strategy, they're going to survive the environmental collapse they themselves caused and then what they're going to do, live in the bunkers for the rest of eternity?
Ok I have a solution. Don't build the data centres then, I'm ok with not having data centres in the country or anywhere else really, but I'll settle for them not being here.
Or you can cool them using raw seawater since year around it's cold AF and is well below the minimum temp needed. It's just cheaper and less permits to use drinking water in evaporative coolers... And that's besides the point too, since do we really need more AI datacenters when there isn't a silver bullet use case? It's been 5 years and there's still no killer app for AI, just vague hand waving at certain jobs (which also quietly rehire their staff months later for some odd reason)
Because it is cheap and government pay for infrastructure and maintenance. If these company would have to pay for the public goods they use none would be profitable.
The problem is they are heavily subsidised currently so they don't actually care about using the cheaper more environmentally friendly solution. The easiest solution is to just hook the mains water supply into the cooling pumps and have the output go down a drain. The fact that it costs 100 bajillion quid a minute, they don't care about because they don't pay that.
Better solutions have always and will always exist, but they cost more to implement.
Piping grey water to a data center either means placing it somewhere with an appropriate pipe with appropriate filtration performed, or building a new pipe/filtration. Drinking water in comparison is easily accessible anywhere. They don’t care about the impact or even the per unit cost, they just want to build on the cheap and take advantage of local infrastructure, and they figure in this ai boom the actual running costs are irrelevant because ai companies will pay for anything that works, efficiency be damned
Just add more hose pipe bans and blame the tax payer for the low river levels. Dispute water companies wasting billions of litres, polluting our water ways and refusing to build infrastructure like reservoirs
Big data centres can't dissipate the amount of heat they generate without evaporating water, so a ban like that would effectively be a ban on that kind of data centre. Obviously, the companies lobbying for data centres to get built wouldn't be happy about that.
Surely they could, just need a bigger heat exchanger. Or even place them near the sea and use that as a heat exchanger. Evaporative cooling also isn't going to work as well in the UK where humidity is high.
But IIRC a lot of this water use stuff is kinda sketchy calculations. Building them takes a lot of water due to all the concrete but it is a one off cost and just as bad as building any other large building.
You can theoretically just use a bigger heat exchanger, but it goes from being about the size of the roof the data centre's going to have anyway to way bigger than the data centre, so with UK land prices, it's not remotely financially viable. It's a similar story with dumping heat into the sea. Anywhere close enough to the sea to feasibly dump heat that's also flat enough to build a data centre and has a significant electricity supply is already going to be full of valuable housing or existing industry, so it's not going to be cheap. We're not like America where there's loads of unused land just outside of towns.
47 Comments
BigMacHole@thelemmy.club · 35 pts · 13d
Which means the Residents will have to RATION their Water Usage going Forward!
-Britain's Government!
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 13d
One cup of tea in the morning and one in the evening should be enough.
ThePyroPython@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 13d
Thing is tea will be the last thing they ration, putting ANY limit, even as rediculously high as 20 a day, would cause riots in the street.
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 3 pts · 13d
Is… Is that ridiculously high?
cynar@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 13d
It's above average, but I wouldn't call it ridiculous. It's just over a cup an hour.
If someone hit 50 cups I would be worried. At that point it's better to move to a bigger mug, rather than more cups.
SouthEndSunset@piefed.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 13d
We get our whenever the bell goes to tell us to get our tea.
echodot@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 12d
When I was a web developer I definitely drank about that much a day. Whenever anybody was bored with what they were doing they would just go make a kettle as an excuse to bunk off for a bit.
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 12d
You can buy all the tea you want. Just the water is rationed.
voodoo3dfx@retrolemmy.com · 2 pts · 13d
2 cups an hour is taking it easy in our house!
blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 13d
There's already hosepipe bans
HerbGrower@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 13d
Only in some areas, no restrictions where I live fortunately. Just dumped a couple hundred litres on some food I am growing.
danielquinn@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 13d
Well we are in the midst of a massive drought.
echodot@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 12d
We always seem to be in the middle of a drought and yet the water companies never seem to be in any rush to fix burst pipes. Odd that
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 1 pts · 9d
#LabourIsForThePeople
Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk · 24 pts · 13d
Good. So no data centres.
saltesc@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 13d
This is Britain we're talking about. The UK notoriously makes awful decisions all the time. They'll go ahead.
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 13d
What are you talking about, plebe? No more showers for you!
mikenurre@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 13d
Billionaires do not care about the plebs' demands for water. They never did.
SouthEndSunset@piefed.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 13d
Plebs don’t need luxuries.
Semjeza@fedinsfw.app · 2 pts · 12d
Or even essentials.
The capitalist class'll charge for air as soon as they can.
echodot@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 12d
The thing is the 1% think that they can do that. But if they did everyone would just die and then they would have no money. It's like the idiotic bunker plans to survive the end of the world, what's their long-term strategy, they're going to survive the environmental collapse they themselves caused and then what they're going to do, live in the bunkers for the rest of eternity?
Semjeza@fedinsfw.app · 1 pts · 12d
Unironically yes, I think that's their plan.
Micro fiefdoms for themselves and their immediate descendents and fuck the rest. A power structure and loyal caste to be their knights/enforcers.
There's a good reason why many lefty thinking heads are calling this techno-feudalism, and comparing TESCREL ideas to medieval ideologies.
Teknikal@anarchist.nexus · 11 pts · 13d
Surveillance centres are how I'm going to refer to them from now on I think, doesn't even make any sense otherwise.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 13d
It's also important people understand it's the same as "the cloud".
That's how the rollout started: "why pay for a hard drive when you can have it anywhere"?
Too many people fell for that, so the corps bought up all the hard drives, now storage is more expensive than when "the cloud" rolled out
They're using startup accounting against us, they'll buy up all the storage/compute power so consumers have no option but to go thru them.
The only way to win is wide scale boycotts till their investors give up. Don't use anything you don't own to store data.
yakko@feddit.uk · 10 pts · 13d
Setting the table for water wars
echodot@feddit.uk · 8 pts · 12d
Ok I have a solution. Don't build the data centres then, I'm ok with not having data centres in the country or anywhere else really, but I'll settle for them not being here.
iocase@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 12d
Or you can cool them using raw seawater since year around it's cold AF and is well below the minimum temp needed. It's just cheaper and less permits to use drinking water in evaporative coolers... And that's besides the point too, since do we really need more AI datacenters when there isn't a silver bullet use case? It's been 5 years and there's still no killer app for AI, just vague hand waving at certain jobs (which also quietly rehire their staff months later for some odd reason)
ToiletFlushShowerScream@piefed.world · 6 pts · 13d
And so sets the first domino leading to the water wars of our future.
pdxfed@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 13d
How could there not be enough water one wonders?
https://observer.co.uk/news/business/article/watchdog-accused-of-giving-away-billions-of-litres-of-spring-water-to-foreign-bottling-giants
blazeknave@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 12d
I sold glycol and grey water data centers 20 yrs ago. Can someone eli5 why water is the crux of the consumption?
Diurnambule@jlai.lu · 8 pts · 12d
Because it is cheap and government pay for infrastructure and maintenance. If these company would have to pay for the public goods they use none would be profitable.
blazeknave@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 12d
Isn't grey water cheaper?
echodot@feddit.uk · 4 pts · 12d
The problem is they are heavily subsidised currently so they don't actually care about using the cheaper more environmentally friendly solution. The easiest solution is to just hook the mains water supply into the cooling pumps and have the output go down a drain. The fact that it costs 100 bajillion quid a minute, they don't care about because they don't pay that.
blazeknave@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 9d
Understood. That makes sense.
Diurnambule@jlai.lu · 1 pts · 12d
I don't know the deals they made. I dunno k if the Greg water network is every where.
scratchee@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 12d
Better solutions have always and will always exist, but they cost more to implement.
Piping grey water to a data center either means placing it somewhere with an appropriate pipe with appropriate filtration performed, or building a new pipe/filtration. Drinking water in comparison is easily accessible anywhere. They don’t care about the impact or even the per unit cost, they just want to build on the cheap and take advantage of local infrastructure, and they figure in this ai boom the actual running costs are irrelevant because ai companies will pay for anything that works, efficiency be damned
blazeknave@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 9d
I was thinking about onsite recycling if that makes a difference. But yeah, it makes sense the path of least resistance is what you described.
sirico@feddit.uk · 4 pts · 13d
Just add more hose pipe bans and blame the tax payer for the low river levels. Dispute water companies wasting billions of litres, polluting our water ways and refusing to build infrastructure like reservoirs
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 12d
Sure there is. Just take it from the people and charge the ridiculous prices for what they do use. Voila, plenty of datacenter water.
DarkCloud@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 13d
Can't they just use rust proof pipes and sea water?
ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one · 5 pts · 13d
That would cost too much money for the poor companies.
Malyca@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 13d
Jfc how hard is it to pass a law requiring a closed loop system? Ban evaporation and you're good.
AnyOldName3@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 13d
Big data centres can't dissipate the amount of heat they generate without evaporating water, so a ban like that would effectively be a ban on that kind of data centre. Obviously, the companies lobbying for data centres to get built wouldn't be happy about that.
HerbGrower@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 13d
Surely they could, just need a bigger heat exchanger. Or even place them near the sea and use that as a heat exchanger. Evaporative cooling also isn't going to work as well in the UK where humidity is high.
But IIRC a lot of this water use stuff is kinda sketchy calculations. Building them takes a lot of water due to all the concrete but it is a one off cost and just as bad as building any other large building.
AnyOldName3@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 12d
You can theoretically just use a bigger heat exchanger, but it goes from being about the size of the roof the data centre's going to have anyway to way bigger than the data centre, so with UK land prices, it's not remotely financially viable. It's a similar story with dumping heat into the sea. Anywhere close enough to the sea to feasibly dump heat that's also flat enough to build a data centre and has a significant electricity supply is already going to be full of valuable housing or existing industry, so it's not going to be cheap. We're not like America where there's loads of unused land just outside of towns.
NickwithaC@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 13d
I see no problem here.
NoForwadSlashS@piefed.social · 1 pts · 7d