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How Much Energy Does AI Use? The People Who Know Aren’t Saying
(www.wired.com)
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this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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Wait so it isn't a closed system that cycles? That's the "thing" I'm always told.
In the context of these large data centers no, it usually isn't recycled water. It gets filtered coming in and run through, then right down the drain. Closed loops do exist in the data center world, but they don't use water, they use a dielectric coolant, and are orders of magnitude more expensive to set up and maintain. You don't usually see systems like that in use at scale like this, the cooling towers would be immense.
If they reuse the water they also have to remove the heat. Down the drain it becomes someone else's problem.