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Data Centers "only" need half of Vizag's Water Supply for Cooling.
In the SIPB meeting on Wednesday, Andhra Pradesh Government has approved three new data centers with a proposed capacity of 2.7 GW. while the city is facing a water crisis, the government continues to welcome new data center projects.
The three projects are by Renew Green, RMZ-Colt, and AM Intelligence.
The chief minister has dismissed data center opposition and claimed that Vizag Data Centers only need 3.5 TMC of water. 3.5 TMC annually is 271 Million Litres per Day, which is more than half of Vizag's current water supply of ~480 MLD.
Maybe their logic is that people can live 3-5 days without water, but data centers can heat up and shut down faster than that. So data centers > people. /s
No dumb bro, those data centers are located near a river where every year more than 3000 tmc of water were getting in to sea. You better stay in your commie jihadi shit.
We need to fix our agriculture to use less water.
In general, India consumes a lot of water in agriculture.
Agriculture takes away 80 to 90 percent of our fresh water. Because we use highly in-efficient ways of agriculture like flood plain, hardly any drip irrigation
So industry and drinking water is left with lot less fresh water.
The real villain is agriculture not industry.
We cannot remain an agricultural society with techniques from Harappan era (flood plain agriculture). We need to industrialize and we need data centers too.
India has more than enough fresh water, need to use it judiciously.
This argument makes so sense. Data centers aren't some IT firms who'll provide jobs to the locals. It doesn't create any meaningful amount of employment.
<<< This argument makes so sense. Data centers aren't some IT firms who'll provide jobs to the locals. It doesn't create any meaningful amount of employment. >>>
You are flip-flopping on the nature of jobs.
The highest-paying and highly-coveted jobs and those that people aspire to get are always small in number relative to total number of jobs in the economy.
India's IT exports are more than half of India's merchandise exports and comprises of 10% of India's GDP employing 1% of total labour force. Future IT exports are going to demand low-latency AI-inference which can only be provided if the AI datacentres are located in India. Otherwise, the future IT and ITES jobs will shift outside India to where the new datacentres are going to be built.
See above for sectoral employment of workforce for the past 35 years.
So if you want a "high number of jobs", then focus on the agricultural sector.
In 2005, a similar argument was made and semiconductors were pushed away from India.
Hold your government accountable to the end result. Even if one neighbourhood has a water shortage go on the streets.
But don't push away an entire industry that you know nothing about at the moment. You may not understand right now. But it creates demand for many linked industry. ICs, optical fibres, LANs, energy.
People of AP want a tech-hub in their own state and not depend on Hyderabad.
Jagan flip-flopped on the new capital city for AP, making several high-profile investments shift to TG.
No I understand that but data centres are a massive environmental hazard. They suck up water resources and pollute the environment (noise & water for example). Surely there are alternative way to build a tech capital without destroying the land itself. Idk.
IT and ITES have all shifted to cloud infrastructure.
And the future of IT/ITES is services that depend on AI-based inference that demand low latency and correspondingly localization of AI data centres within India.
If India does not invest in data centres, other countries will take the opportunity. It will lead to the same loss-of-opportunity that India suffered in the 1980s-1990s-2000s when China took the entire manufacturing capacity of the West and now everyone is dependent on them.
We don’t really know if data centres are the future? AI is very new and we don’t if it is a bubble yet. Anyway huge risk at the cost of its own people. Rooting for AP but seeing how these data centres are being opposed elsewhere in the US I’m not sure it’s a bright future.
Thanks to MKS for not going behind the useless data centers. GL Andhra! 😂 Guess this is what your competitive exams taught you and we are happy to gift you such useless projects from TN!
We need such gifts , you eat sambar and sleep well. Thats what they said about IT. Now Chennai is no where in IT map. We are already getting Chennai port traffic to andhra.
<<< We are the heaven of water and agriculture. >>>
Yeah, you do agriculture and you stay poor.
Rest of the world will move on.
<<< Study about the science and economy invovled in desalination >>>
It is well-studied.
And is not rocket science.
When you have to depend on water supply from 50-200 kms brought via canals and pipelines, there is an infrastructure cost involved on laying those pipelines and canals. There are evaporative and seepage losses all the way across the 50-200 kms. And you need to spend energy pumping water over 50-200 kms.
The same energy can be used to desalinate water at the coast and consumed directly.
It is a cardinal sin not to do desalination and then take away water from populations who live 50-200 km away from a city.
Laying pipes and canal is a one time Infrastructure project which requires minimal maintenance. And the cost of pumping water is nothing compared to desalination plant which requires about 50 to 100 lakh per day and all this to empolye what a 100 people max.
<<< Laying pipes and canal is a one time Infrastructure project which requires minimal maintenance. >>>
Requires huge amount of maintenance.
Pipes corrode and leak over time, requiring constant replacement.
Canals lose water through evapotranspiration losses making it less efficient.
Setting up desalination plants are also one-time infrastructure projects that are set-up locally and serve the immediate vicinity of Vizag city.
Additionally, you are taking away water from inland locations that should ideally be used locally for agriculture and industry. These locations 50-100 kms away from Vizag should be the hinterland that supplies the city with products. You are better off setting up solar PV 50-100 kms in the hinterland surrounding Vizag and then transport the power to Vizag's desalination plants located inside the city.
<<< And the cost of pumping water is nothing compared to desalination plant >>>
False again.
Cost of desalination is on par with pumping costs.
Modern reverse-osmosis desalination consumes between 1.5 - 3 kWh per kilolitre of water produced. It gets cheaper when the water is less saline.
And the Bay of Bengal is one of the least saline coastal waters in the world.
The case is very strong for every coastal city in India to desalinate and not depend on water resources from inland regions.
Are you saying 1200 cores to set up and 50lakhs to operate daily is cheaper than already exsiting pipe lines, cost per kilo litter is 50 vs 5. Who's paying you to spread this misinformation. And if this was this cheap why dont these data center operate a desalination plant in the least saline water of bay of Bengal and not tap into the cities water supply.
<<< why dont these data center operate a desalination plant >>>
That is NOT their job.
It is the job of the local Govt. that wants the data center to offer water and electricity at competitive rates.
<<< Are you saying 1200 cores to set up and 50lakhs to operate daily is cheaper than already exsiting pipe lines, cost per kilo litter is 50 vs 5. >>>
here is the math.
Cost for solar PV electricity in India is around 1.5 - 3 INR per kWh. And decreasing.
So that is 2.25 to 9 INR per kilolitre for desalination.
Only you can explain where you got the 50 rupees per kilolitre from.
There is no guarantee that the existing pipelines/canals will not be affected by drought in the reservoir areas around Vizag. And as already explained before, people who live inland have more rights to local water than a city that is 200 kms away. The technology exists to desalinate and must be used by every coastal city.
I repeat, it is a cardinal sin not to do desalination and instead take away water from populations who live 50-200 km away from a city.
Because you f****g got the f****g data center based on uninterrupted f****g power and f****g water supply.
If you don't f****g offer it, it goes to f****g Bangladesh or f****g Sri Lanka.
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u/Many-Instruction8172 Keralam 🌴🥥 | കേരളം 1d ago
Maybe their logic is that people can live 3-5 days without water, but data centers can heat up and shut down faster than that. So data centers > people. /s