Here's the link:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/13/utah-approves-datacenter-backlash

A plan to create one of the world’s largest datacenters, a gargantuan project spanning an area more than twice the size of Manhattan, has provoked a furious public backlash in Utah amid concerns over its vast energy use and impact upon the state’s stressed water supplies.

The Stratos artificial intelligence datacenter footprint will cover more than 40,000 acres (62 sq miles) over three sites in Box Elder county in north-western Utah. The facility will require about 9GW of power, which is more than the entire state of Utah currently consumes, and suck up a significant amount of water in an area that has been hit by severe drought in recent years....(end clip)

This is a project with so much environmental impact, I have to wonder if there aren't ways to better engineer the sourcing of power and coolant. And if a baking desert is really a suitable site location for something so critically dependent on cooling and water. The present plan seems almost like the engineering equivalent of trolling. Also, why not at least take advantage of the solar efficiency of a desert? But no, they're going to put in gas turbines. It's this kind of idiocy which makes the US currently look so...idiotic in the eyes of other developed countries.

1 hour ago, TheVat said:

This is a project with so much environmental impact, I have to wonder if there aren't ways to better engineer the sourcing of power and coolant. And if a baking desert is really a suitable site location for something so critically dependent on cooling and water. The present plan seems almost like the engineering equivalent of trolling. Also, why not at least take advantage of the solar efficiency of a desert? But no, they're going to put in gas turbines. It's this kind of idiocy which makes the US currently look so...idiotic in the eyes of other developed countries.

They are not only popping up in the US. Canada and the EU is working hard on the idea of AI sovereignty (which would be the charitable way to to describe it- it is to me not clear what kind of agreements are in place to actually enforce it properly). Most that I am aware of will rely on LNG due to perceived flexibility and faster implementation. Some have proposed closed-loop cooling systems, but I have not seen details how exactly that works. The one in Utah will have a much more massive impact. However, given the rate they are popping, it is hard to overlook that the mid-sized ones will likely also have considerable issues.

That being said, a positive element is that some of the data centers will connect their large capacity to the grid, and the promise here is that they can easily scale use up and down and either consume overcapacity or feed into the grid when needed, thus providing more stability.

If they can figure out some way of cooling besides water or not requiring it, the project could be worthwhile IMO but is not the only environmental issue. Providing power is a relatively trivial problem compared to the water usage issue. More solar panels, windmills, turbines or whatever can be built for power but getting sustainable sources of water in the desert has always been a difficult proposition.

1 hour ago, CharonY said:

They are not only popping up in the US. Canada and the EU is working hard on the idea of AI sovereignty (which would be the charitable way to to describe it- it is to me not clear what kind of agreements are in place to actually enforce it properly). Most that I am aware of will rely on LNG due to perceived flexibility and faster implementation. Some have proposed closed-loop cooling systems, but I have not seen details how exactly that works. The one in Utah will have a much more massive impact. However, given the rate they are popping, it is hard to overlook that the mid-sized ones will likely also have considerable issues.

That being said, a positive element is that some of the data centers will connect their large capacity to the grid, and the promise here is that they can easily scale use up and down and either consume overcapacity or feed into the grid when needed, thus providing more stability.

Why does water for cooling have to be a problem? Surely any system can run with closed loop cooling, provided you build adequate radiators? And in Utah why can’t they build their own solar farm to power the thing? I cam’t see why they should be allowed to be parasites on the infrastructure built for the citizens.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by exchemist

So the argument against solar was from what I understand the ability to scale production up and down as needed. Solar was considered to be too tricky. But I have not seen really a quantitative argument. My guess is that there are more considerations and up-front costs that they would rather avoid, but this is only my gut feeling. I am sure there are some studies/report on cost/benefit somewehre.

The closed loop argument is also a bit tricky, and I only skimmed some of the issues, so am not really knowledgeable on that front, either. But from what I understand, closed-loop system cost more energy to run, so depending on how the power gets in, the ecological costs are moved further upstream. Otoh there are ideas of also using the heat e.g., for greenhouses and other buildings. I am pretty sure that folks have or are currently doing heavy calculations on the overall burden (carbon emission, water usage etc.). Ultimately, someone has to pay the price.

Data centers and AI are big business and big profits for Billionaires and investors.
They can afford to pay the high prices for power, and in so doing,, they drive up energy costs, or cause draughts, for the idiots who buy into this technology to have it think for them.
We are our own worst enemies, and there are plenty of unscrupulous people willing to take advantage of, and get insanely rich off of, us stupid people.

With companies it comes down to relative costs. Open loop is cheap (pipe from the river, dump hot water back in the river, the hell with riparian life), and there's some evaporative loss. Closed loop is expensive, you need glycol and inhibitors in the waters, cooling towers or other means of dumping the heat, and any use of dumped heat is even more expensive. But water use is minimal. I'll guess that closed energy loops are even more expensive (like fairy tales at this stage), where you reclaim waste heat to power turbines which feed joules back to the chips (With whatever mechanical losses that would involve). There's also thermogalvanic batteries being developed, which seem like a potential solution down the road. I still think companies need to think longterm and use solar in the desert, reaping the longterm benefit of not paying to pipe in NG and thus generating with fewer moving parts

Edited 11 minutes ago11 min by TheVat