America is putting data centers in the desert of Arizona because it’s fucking stupid.
China Is Putting Data Centers in the Ocean to Keep Them Cool
Submitted 12 hours ago by cm0002@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.zip
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/china-powers-ai-boom-with-undersea-data-centers/
Comments
favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 3 hours ago
subignition@fedia.io 7 hours ago
If we can't stop the energy from being used anyway, why not make a desalination plant out of it too? 🤦
SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
There are already llava/magma vents in the ocean… But the thought of human heat being added makes me upset because it’s just another piece.
techt@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
I get it, truly, but we’ve been dejecting heat to the ocean for a good while. Ocean water cools marine engines and equipment, and heck we use rivers to cool lots of things – even reactors, which ends up back in the ocean. Data center cooling might be one of the more responsible uses because it’s (hopefully) not leeching petroleum or radioactive byproducts into the water.
I’m actually a little more upset now than when I started this comment.
:(
shalafi@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Sounds like a great idea. OTOH, impossible to calculate the damage to local ecosystems vs. traditional methods.
Totally uneducated guess: Probably better? Cooling is a major power suck, as well as consuming water.
Roughly 40 percent of the electricity consumed by an ordinary data center is for this purpose.
We’re draining aquifers that take thousands of years to build up. Don’t read up on that, it’s horrifying. So if we have to have data centers, I’m gambling that underwater is the lesser of two evils.
winkly@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Quick! The oceans aren’t heating up fast enough! 🤦♂️
scottmeme@sh.itjust.works 11 hours ago
Microsoft did it first
fubarx@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Microsoft and Google both prototyped it. FWIW, they didn’t take it to production once the data was collected.
IIRC, cooling worked fine if placed in the right place with circulation, but maintenance and part replacement was a major issue.
lunarul@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
maintenance and part replacement was a major issue
That was my first thought: who’s going to be the underwater IT guy?
Obi@sopuli.xyz 2 hours ago
Good point, I’m betting the overlap of “IT-skilled” and “loves to dive and the outdoor” is rather thin.
fubarx@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
RagingRobot@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Cool
bloodfoot@programming.dev 12 hours ago
Right, humans are actually gonna boil the ocean… aren’t we.
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 hours ago
Rain World (2017)