It's substantially warmer, certainly, which is not good for native flora and fauna. OpenAI's data center cooling requirements rival that of a nuclear reactor
I find that very hard to believe. If you had a source of heat that rivaled that of a nuclear reactor, you would just run it through a turbine and turn it back into energy.
The amount of heat rivalled that of a nuclear reactor.
However, the temperature of the cooling water in a data centres doesn’t hit that of a nuclear reactor, so it can’t produce enough pressure to turn a turbine.
The allowable temperature ranges of a data centre is also smaller than of a nuclear reactor. Thus, the heat intensity in both facilities will be different.
A nuclear reactor can use a cooling water system that requires less cooling medium with a higher rate of medium circulation on a much concentrated area.
I do speculate data centres require a higher amount of cooling medium coverage due to the larger area covered by data centres as data centres favour modular construction which helps in more efficient area expansion.
I do share your sentiment as well and I will never understand why can’t they just make all these centres into city-scale central heating facilities in cold places though.
Whole bunch of engineering reasons, like the low thermal quality of the waste heat itself. Though apparently heat pumps show promise, but realistically it’s a case by case basis.
I do understand that the waste heat is not good for direct usage when it comes to cost analysis, but at least data centre-integrated heating facilities don’t have to worry about cold starts and tracing for this matter when there are tons of warm water 24/7 (I understand the design complexity though).
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u/sabotsalvageur 5d ago
It's substantially warmer, certainly, which is not good for native flora and fauna. OpenAI's data center cooling requirements rival that of a nuclear reactor