Hi there everyone,
Let me start this by saying that this is an honest question. I figure nobody would be better suited to answer my question than a group laser-focused on the negatives of the technology.
I see these types of memes a lot and see statistics of gallons consumed in a lot of articles I read. What I don't understand though is where the water goes that it can't be reclaimed or naturally return from a gas to a liquid.
As a kid(long ago), I was taught of the cycle of rain and the conversion between gases and liquid. It's my understanding that when a liquid is used to cool something, it also follows the same conversion process as it cools.
Could someone explain to me what's going on in this process where the 264 billion gallons of water used in the meme do not return to a liquid state?
I would appreciate any insight into the process that seems to defy this cycle that I am missing. Like I said prior, my knowledge of this process ended in middle school science class so I'm confident that I'm missing something.
Thanks for your time!
Worth noting that generating electricity is typically the second leading user of water behind agriculture. A 5 -> 15 percent bump will consume a lot more water unless new generation doesn’t spin a turbine with steam, just not at the data center itself.
That's much more of a fair argument than the cooling loop water that I haven't heard articulated. Keeping the old fossil fuel plants alive does keep that water use there. That being said, the majority of the new grid capacity is solar and wind which are the two types of power generation that don't need to really use steam. Was about 88% solar + wind in 2025 capacity additions in the US and 91% from solar + wind + battery in Q1 2026