| As a comparison, one acre of alfalfa growing year round in California uses about 5*325000=1,625,000 gallons of water a year for four harvests, 4400 gallons of water per day per acre. There’s around a million acres of alfalfa grown in California for a total water usage of 1,625,000*1,000,000=1.625×10¹² gallons (or 5 million acre-feet) per year. 365 million gallons of water per year for one data center is 1000 acre feet of water. California’s alfalfa crop uses as much water as 5,000 of these data centers. |
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| ▲ | quentindemetz 21 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | That the only nation which sent man on the moon uses acre-feet as a unit of volume blows my mind | | |
| ▲ | stockresearcher 20 hours ago | parent [-] | | Oh sure, I can help. 1000 acre feet is approximately 40 hectare meters. Or, you know, about 1.2 billion liters. Over on this side of the ocean, we’ve got freshwater lakes larger than entire European countries. There’s a lake over here, it has an island on it. That island has a lake, which has an island in it. And there’s a lake on that island. We need units of measurement that represent large things. If you don’t, that’s ok. | | |
| ▲ | rjrjrjrj 19 hours ago | parent [-] | | 1.2 billion litres = 1200 megalitres = 1.2 gigalitres Works well in places that need to represent things large and small.
Europe, Canada, Australia, and pretty much everywhere else. But enjoy your cubic furlongs and tablespoons. |
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| ▲ | _DeadFred_ 21 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Do Alfalfa growers traditionally use limited (and funded at large expense by the local community) municipal water hookups to grow their crops? Are alfalfa growers asking for new water hookup permits to access these resources? Because DCs are, and that is the concern local communities have. Not random comparative statistics whose purpose seems to be to take valid local community concerns and pretend they're just a joke. How much do alfa growers in California add to my water bill? How much will new municipal water hookups by new data centers impact my water bill? One is a valid concern. One is just a BS attempt to discredit the valid concern. Because that is how this shady industry operates. On BS. On manipulation. And they wonder why they are more and more disliked. | | |
| ▲ | cogman10 21 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | It is a sort of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. The reason these DC use so much water is because it uses less electricity to evaporatively cool than it takes to cool with a heat pump. You are trading water scarcity for energy scarcity. In my personal opinion, the right tradeoff is more electricity. Also IMO, these DCs should be required to build out solar + battery + wind offset plants which supply their energy either directly or indirectly by selling to the grid operator at a discounted rate. If you want 40MW of power, you need to deploy 40MW of solar (not peak, but yearly average output) and a 400MWh battery plus all the grid hookups required. The end result for residence should be lower energy bills, not higher bills. | |
| ▲ | quickthrowman 20 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > Do Alfalfa growers traditionally use limited (and funded at large expense by the local community) municipal water hookups to grow their crops? Are alfalfa growers asking for new water hookup permits to access these resources? No, you already know they use flood irrigation. Why is a municipal water system allowing a data center connection that will strain their distribution network? They’re well within their rights to say no, Mark Zuckerberg isn’t holding a gun to their heads. | | |
| ▲ | cogman10 19 hours ago | parent [-] | | > Why is a municipal water system allowing a data center connection that will strain their distribution network? They’re well within their rights to say no, Mark Zuckerberg isn’t holding a gun to their heads. Deep pockets have a way of bypassing practical concerns. [1] Zuckerberg likely isn't holding a gun to their heads, instead it's more likely he's putting wads of cash in their pockets. [1] https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/08/texas-corpus-christi... |
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