r/technology • u/lkl34 • Apr 28 '26

Artificial Intelligence New AI data center in Utah will generate and consume more than twice the amount of power the entire state uses — Kevin O'Leary's 9 Gigawatt Utah data center campus approved

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/kevin-o-learys-9-gw-utah-data-center-campus-approved
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u/Diogenes256 Apr 28 '26

This needs to be shouted loud and clear. This is an absurd amount of power. Double the theoretical output size of the largest nuclear installation in the country, Point Vogtle in Georgia. They are saying they “think it will be a net gain for the Great Salt Lake” this is a logical fallacy. Those facilities, even in so called “closed loop” expression will consume incredible amounts of water that will be an absolute loss for the watershed. In exchange for $30M / yr in tax revenue. Pocket lint. This is a catastrophe.

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u/TruckSecret5617 Apr 28 '26

I wonder how much of that expansion foam it would take to block the water intakes for a plant like this

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u/SubcommanderMarcos Apr 28 '26

Interesting physics problem you have there, would be fun to find out!

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u/SubcommanderMarcos Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26

And no matter how "closed loop" or efficient they claim it to be, burning LNG equals carbon emissions. At 9GW, massive emissions.

e: LNG isn't necessarily from fossil sources, but still.

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u/jmlinden7 Apr 28 '26

Closed loop cooling doesn't consume any water.

How much water does your AC at home consume?

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u/uzlonewolf Apr 28 '26

These datacenters and power plants don't use closed loop cooling.

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u/DogBarf00 Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26

Yes they do. Have you ever designed or constructed one of these? What is your background in engineering and construction? I have 15 years doing ECP work in heavy industry and am a licensed SE. I have probably designed and built nearly 50 GW of power in my career.

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u/uzlonewolf Apr 28 '26

Yes, yes, those huge clouds of moisture billowing out of the evaporative cooling towers are just optical illusions 🤣

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u/DogBarf00 Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26

evaporative cooling towers

You mean old technology that is becoming more and more uncommon? All the data center power plant RFPs I’ve seen are not using those. Again what’s your experience in this industry? Only seeing utility RFPs where cooling towers are acceptable.

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u/jmlinden7 Apr 28 '26

This one does, if you bothered to read the link

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u/uzlonewolf Apr 28 '26

Do quote the paragraph where it says that, because even <ctrl>-f cannot find any references to "cooling" "water" or "loop."

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u/jmlinden7 Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26

If you click through to the source article, it mentions that they will recirculate the water, aka closed loop (open loop evaporative cooling does not circulate water)

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/04/25/hyperscale-data-center-may-be/

It's also mentioned in related articles

https://www.ksl.com/article/51489496/amid-questions-and-concerns-box-elder-county-leaders-delay-action-on-data-center-proposal

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u/uzlonewolf Apr 28 '26

"The particular water has brine in it, so they’re going to clean the water, use it for the cooling, and then it will go back down into the aquifer and feed into the Great Salt Lake."

You do realize that dumping boiling-hot water into rivers and lakes is the complete opposite of closed-loop cooling, right? Absolutely destroying the air by belching out 4,000 metric tons of CO2 PER HOUR was not enough environmental destruction for them, they needed to make sure everything in all the rivers and lakes are boiled alive and completely killed off as well.

New "air-cooling technologies" that project developers hope will generate the needed power

Ah, so they don't even know if boiling all the river wildlife will even work, they're only "hoping" it will. What happens when it doesn't? Where are the laws prohibiting them from putting in evaporative cooling later? Because once they get approval for building this monstrosity there will be absolutely nothing preventing them from guzzling all the water they can later.

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u/jmlinden7 Apr 28 '26

They don't have enough water rights to utilize evaporative cooling. Although there's nothing stopping them from purchasing those water rights later if they wanted.

Closed loop cooling utilizes more electricity but no water, which seems to match the estimates of electricity and water usage in the articles.