common sense? businesses like making money and don't like spending money. why build glorified warehouses where it isn't economical to do so?
>And, AIUI, the only reason they use up any water, rather than using a completely closed-loop system, is because it's cheaper that way.
evaporative cooling takes way less power to operate.
"The data center can get water cheap" is not the same as "water is generally cheap in the area the data center is built."
"Water is cheap in the area" is not the same as "water is plentiful in the area."
You talk like you think economics in the real world works like "spherical-economy-in-a-frictionless-vacuum" Econ 101 terms. I assure you, it does not. There are lots and lots of exceptions.
> evaporative cooling takes way less power to operate.
So build the datacenter with a bunch of extra solar panels and batteries.
Or will that cut too deeply into the poor, starving billionaires' bonuses?
[citation needed]
There have already been stories about residents in some areas having to ration water due to drought, but the recently-built datacenters still guzzling water.
And, AIUI, the only reason they use up any water, rather than using a completely closed-loop system, is because it's cheaper that way.