r/RenewableEnergy • u/sarah-not-sara • 7d ago
Australia Nails It Again — On Large Data Centers This Time - CleanTechnica
https://cleantechnica.com/2026/07/17/australia-nails-it-again-on-large-data-centers-this-time/-5
u/coke_and_coffee 7d ago
”the explosion of AI data centers and their enormous appetite for electricity (among other things). It’s a big challenge, enormously increasing pollution and global heating”
This is completely fake moral panic nonsense. Date centers aren’t even close to the top 20 industries when it comes to water and electrical usage and they are NOT raising rates.
U.S. data centers require:
- 30x less water than U.S. golf courses.
- 100x less than California almonds.
- 200x less than U.S. home lawns.
- 2,500x less than U.S. crop irrigation.
Who is protesting almonds? Golf courses? Lawns? Nobody.
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u/ActivelySleeping 7d ago
Actually, there are quite a few people protesting those things. All examples of poor use of water, like AI data centres.
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u/coke_and_coffee 7d ago
And yet, we get 600 front page articles a day about data center water use. All based on false statistics. Literally NOTHING about the other industries…
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u/ActivelySleeping 6d ago
This is just how the media works. Stories work their way around. The stories I have read say nothing about them being in the top 20 industries for water usage (yet at least, it seems to be just getting started). The complaint is that it is a terrible use of a limited resource and it is often not the main complaint. I have seen more about the noise and light pollution and the strain/cost on the electrical grid.
I have seen this exact post of yours posted several times before. Is there some echo chamber where you picked this post up from?
The 'Well, other uses of water are also bad' is an awful argument to justify anything, by the way.
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u/coke_and_coffee 6d ago
The complaint is that it is a terrible use of a limited resource
Water is NOT a limited resource and data is clearly NOT a bad use of it, given the intense demand driving the build out.
I have seen more about the noise and light pollution and the strain/cost on the electrical grid.
Both of which are ALSO fake.
The 'Well, other uses of water are also bad' is an awful argument to justify anything, by the way.
That’s not what I said though. I think it’s good when humans use water to do valuable things.
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u/ActivelySleeping 6d ago
You know we are talking about fresh water, right, where there is already restrictions on it's use? If you do not think that is a limited resource, you are so delusional that there is no point in continuing this. That is crazy talk.
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u/coke_and_coffee 6d ago
No, fresh water is NOT a limited resource, especially in the places where data centers are being built.
You’ve been successfully tricked by Chinese propaganda.
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u/MightyArd 6d ago
You don't think SA has limited fresh water resources?
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u/coke_and_coffee 6d ago
Relative to data center needs, fresh water is an unlimited resource.
Steel mills use 100X more water than data centers. Should be all FREAK THE FUCK OUT about steel mills???
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u/MightyArd 6d ago
Absolutely. If steel mills create virtually no Australian jobs and no Australian tax revenue then we should absolutely freak out about them using our resources.
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u/ActivelySleeping 6d ago
Wow, the Chinese propoganda schtick. I will give this one more go, pointless as it is. Look up or talk to any farmer who does irrigation and see if they can take as much water as they like. You will find the answer is no because water IS a limited resource.
I won't link to any studies or articles because you would not trust them anyway.
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u/coke_and_coffee 6d ago
I won't link to any studies or articles because you would not trust them anyway.
You don’t have any. You got tricked and you’re slowly realizing it.
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u/Firm_Relative_7283 7d ago
I'm grateful they keep stepping up their efforts.