A sizable percentage of datacenters use open loop water spray towers, but the alternative, forced air exchange (ie add more giant fans) uses more electricity. It’s fairly complex to quantify which is “better” or “worse” but there exist data centers that evaporate a ton of water and send it elsewhere. (for what it’s worth I agree most of the anti datacenter hype is overblown and driven by specific poorly designed gas turbine powered installations).

> driven by specific poorly designed gas turbine powered installations

*increasingly nonspecific. See [1] for example

[1] https://floodlightnews.org/ai-data-centers-texas-pollution-l...