"Most Of The Data Centers Do Not Consume Water" - Ladies & Gentlemen, The Governor Of Utah!!

[hatrack]

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At the same time, Utah’s elected leaders have pushed for the state to be a hub for data centers, facilities that, for decades, have relied on large amounts of water to keep their servers cool, through a process known as evaporative cooling. Since 2021, Utah has added or announced plans for at least 15 new data center buildings or campuses, according to Data Center Map, and at least a few existing facilities expanded their footprints over that time.

Asked by The Salt Lake Tribune how he squared those traditionally water-intensive industries with his Great Salt Lake goals, Cox appeared steamed. “Most of the data centers do not consume water. This is a big misnomer out there,” he said in response.

Cox warned of rising electricity prices across the nation, a trend fueled, in part, by the rise of artificial intelligence and more data centers. The governor has embraced an initiative called “Operation Gigawatt” to more than double the state’s energy generation. At the unveiling of his Great Salt Lake initiative, he praised nuclear energy and its ability to power desalination plants, which could someday free up an “abundance” of water from the world’s oceans. Cox and other officials in the state have also warned of a new global “arms race” over who will ultimately control artificial intelligence technologies and the energy they need.

“If you tell people, ‘I’m sorry, you’re just not going to have any energy for the things that we need. We’re just going to have to give up and let China rule the world, because we can’t create energy because it uses some water,’” the governor continued, “that’s crazy talk.”

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https://grist.org/technology/utah-data-center-water-supply-meta-novva/