Fury Mounts over a Global A.I. Frenzy (opens in new tab)

Is this true?

Maybe I'm being overly simplistic, but water that's been used once for cooling can't be used again until something else, possibly time or other natural processes, has cooled the water itself off, right?

They probably could, but then electricity consumption goes up because in a lot of places the temperatures required are below ambient. I'm seeing quotes that place desired water temperature around 80F, which is below ambient temperatures in most of the US at least part of the year.

It takes less energy to get fresh water that's 85F and cool it to 80F than recycle 90F water and cool it to 80F.

Also, I think the only truly "consumed" water is from evaporative coolers. Unless I'm mistaken, they start with potable and end up with warmer potable water. I don't think there's a reason it couldn't be fed into the water grid, where it should cool back down naturally. I guess the problem is when the datacenter requires more water than the rest of the water grid so you end up producing excess potable water.

Main "issue" is that evaporative cooling is just ridiculously effective compared to a normal heat exchanger with only air.

You can use water or air internally but then to get rid of the heat from the facility there aren't many choices. You either put it into the air which is cheap, into nearby water bodies which has other environmental concerns, or into the ground which is expensive. The air is the simplest, cheapest solution and using water for evaporative cooling in dryer climates makes it even better

How do you cool the closed loop?

Sure, that, plus the catastrophic cumulative effects of anthropogenic climate disruption, that will render large swaths of the planet uninhabitable, resulting in billions of climate refugees, that we’re likely already locked in / inevitably going to see in the not too distant future.