Saw this claimed elsewhere and decided to Grok it.....but the bottom line is that almond production uses 5 to 10 times more water than all existing data centers. Of course, it is just the sort of thing you'd expect an AI to say, huh?



Almond production in California uses far more waterroughly 510+ times more than all current U.S. data centers combined (and still more than plausible global totals).
Almond Production in California
California grows ~80% of the world's almonds on about 1.51.6 million acres. Reliable estimates put its annual water use (mostly irrigation/evapotranspiration) at 4.75.5 million acre-feet per year (recent figures; some older ones were slightly higher).

• Conversion: 1 acre-foot 325,851 gallons.
• Total: Roughly 1.531.79 trillion gallons per year.

This represents ~917% of California's agricultural water use (or ~1113% of the state's developed water supply in some estimates). Almonds are efficient compared to some other crops on a per-nut or economic-value basis (and efficiency has improved ~33% since the 1990s via drip irrigation), but the sheer scale makes the total large.
Per-nut figures often cited (~1 gallon per almond, or ~3.2 gallons in more detailed water-footprint studies) are rough averages and vary with conditions.
Data Centers (Direct Water Use for Cooling)
Data centers primarily consume water via evaporative cooling (not all facilities; some use air or other methods). Figures focus on consumptive use (water evaporated, not returned to the source).

• U.S. data centers: Estimates for ~2021 were ~449 million gallons per day, or ~164 billion gallons annually. Recent/updated figures (including some 2023 data) range from low tens of billions to low hundreds of billions annually, with growth from AI but still in that ballpark for direct use.
• Global: Estimates around 560 billion liters (~148 billion gallons) annually, potentially rising toward 1.2 trillion liters (~317 billion gallons) by 2030.

Even generous recent U.S. totals (e.g., some analyses including indirect power-plant effects) don't approach almond levels. Individual large facilities can use 15 million gallons/day, but aggregated across thousands of centers, it's far lower than almonds.
Direct comparison: California almonds alone use ~911 more water than U.S. data centers (based on ~164 billion gallon figure) or still several times more even against higher-end global projections.

I think there's also a shocking comparison to water consumption for almond milk vs dairy on a gallon to gallon days

flown-the-coop said:

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Vogon Poet said:

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Water Footprint will soon be the new Carbon Footprint.

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Crybabies in the hill country been moaning about this for decades.


No reason we shouldn't have nuclear powered desalination plants all along the coast.

Bunch of made up crisis to distract you.

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EOT.!

Nutjob California buddy of mine has been on about Almonds and their water evils for at least a decade.

His claim is that the reason the water is a problem is because all the farmers in the Central Valley switched to Almonds once we started cracking down on immigration and they couldn't get illegals to pick their crops anymore.

So... if we'd just let the illegals back in, the farmers could get off Almonds.

My racetrack is out in almond land (Willows, CA). The idea that we aren't still just ****ing chock full of illegals across the whole state, and that there is any kind of enforcement, is laughable. That part of the state is reasonably conservative, I think the county my main track is in was something like 70% Trump voters last election. You'll see 18 wheelers parked on the side of I-5 down near Buttonwillow farther south serving as billboards as well (either pro-Trump or anti-Newsome water policy stuff).

The state really isn't that unreasonable when you get away from the big cities and the coasts.

Logos Stick said:

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Not only do they consume massive amounts of water, they have to ship truckloads of bees out there every year to pollinate those trees.

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Got a buddy in East Texas that was working to get his hive numbers up to start taking advantage. Solid money if you can keep your hive strong/healthy.

Quote:

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The state really isn't that unreasonable when you get away from the big cities and the coasts.

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here.

flown-the-coop said:

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Vogon Poet said:

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Water Footprint will soon be the new Carbon Footprint.

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Crybabies in the hill country been moaning about this for decades.

No reason we shouldn't have nuclear powered desalination plants all along the coast.

Bunch of made up crisis to distract you.

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It's a real crisis until we actually get desal plants online on the coast. That's not going very well right now, unfortunately.

Has every thread on f/16 become propaganda?

Another comparison...golf courses. Currently Data Centers use ~ 2% of what US golf courses consume. Even if we allow for incredible increase in next 10 years, will still be a small fraction.

I don't golf, but I can hardly wait for the commies to attack elitist country clubs who are profligate wasters of our precious water.

I know...they'll have to pry the 7-iron from your cold, dead hands. Planet of the Apes - maybe it was foreshadowing libs taking over the world? RIP Mr. Heston.

ETA fix typos

flown-the-coop said:

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Vogon Poet said:

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Water Footprint will soon be the new Carbon Footprint.

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Crybabies in the hill country been moaning about this for decades.

No reason we shouldn't have nuclear powered desalination plants all along the coast.

Bunch of made up crisis to distract you.

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Here ye here ye!

Texas would be an exporter of potable water!


Blue star post!

5Amp said:

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flown-the-coop said:

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Vogon Poet said:

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Water Footprint will soon be the new Carbon Footprint.

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Crybabies in the hill country been moaning about this for decades.

No reason we shouldn't have nuclear powered desalination plants all along the coast.

Bunch of made up crisis to distract you.

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Here ye here ye!

Texas would be an exporter of potable water!


Blue star post!

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Not in our lifetime. But that would be cool.

Queso1 said:

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Has every thread on f/16 become propaganda?

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Don't be so obtuse…

HollywoodBQ said:

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Nutjob California buddy of mine has been on about Almonds and their water evils for at least a decade.

His claim is that the reason the water is a problem is because all the farmers in the Central Valley switched to Almonds once we started cracking down on immigration and they couldn't get illegals to pick their crops anymore.

So... if we'd just let the illegals back in, the farmers could get off Almonds.

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Because you can just switch back & forth from an annual produce crop to a tree-based nut crop that takes decades to develop as the political winds change direction, amirite?

Over_ed said:

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Another comparison...golf courses. Currently Data Centers use ~ 2% of what US golf courses consume. Even if we allow for incredible increase in next 10 years, will still be a small fraction.

I don't golf, but I can hardly wait for the commies to attack elitist country clubs who are profligate wasters of our precious water.

I know...they'll have to pry the 7-iron from your cold, dead hands. Planet of the Apes - maybe it was foreshadowing libs taking over the world? RIP Mr. Heston.

ETA fix typos

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This is true. Liquid cooling in data centers is a big chiller tank of water and the water flows through the pipes up to the rack of equipment and then through cold plates mounted on the hot electrical components. The "hot" water returns back to the chiller to cool off and get pumped back through the data center again. No water is gained or lost through the entire process. The fear porn around data centers is nuts. When a green is watered on a golf course it is gone to the clouds through evaporation.

SunrayAg said:

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And your point is?

Almonds provide nutritional value to humans.

Data centers provide a bot to write emails for you.

If you think food is less important than human intellectual laziness, then maybe you should stop eating?

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My point is that dAtA cEnTeRs!!!!! is the new cLimAtE CrIsIs!!!!!!

SunrayAg said:

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And about those nuclear desalination plants… Where exactly is the trillions of dollars to build them going to come from? Magic free money from the sky?

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Learing center shutdowns!

Hush old man. This is a tough guy thread!

No, I do understand the water issues and that we have waited far too long to address it.

I have a feeling Elon will likely once again come to the rescue and just build the desal plants himself.

And it doesn't take a trillion dollars.

And net exporters of energy, like our friends in the ME, have turned the energy and excess energy into fresh water.

We either do the same or I am sure the UAE will be glad to ship tankers of their fresh water to us.

My tough guy point was people in the Austin area need to quit worrying about owl habitats and salamanders and get behind some nuclear energy.

If you are a farmer / rancher experience a water shortage, I do have compassion for you. In fact, I am hoping calling this out so blatantly gets a bit of attention.

I know I've asked this question and its more rhetorical than anything. For a state who's whole western boarder is the Pacific Ocean, how the hell do you not have enough water.

The ocean is salty

The Ex Officio Director said:

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I know I've asked this question and its more rhetorical than anything. For a state who's whole western boarder is the Pacific Ocean, how the hell do you not have enough water.

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You can ask the same of Texas. We have about the same mileage of coastline as California once you factor bays and we don't have enough water for much of the state.

FriscoKid said:

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Over_ed said:

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Another comparison...golf courses. Currently Data Centers use ~ 2% of what US golf courses consume. Even if we allow for incredible increase in next 10 years, will still be a small fraction.

I don't golf, but I can hardly wait for the commies to attack elitist country clubs who are profligate wasters of our precious water.

I know...they'll have to pry the 7-iron from your cold, dead hands. Planet of the Apes - maybe it was foreshadowing libs taking over the world? RIP Mr. Heston.

ETA fix typos

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This is true. Liquid cooling in data centers is a big chiller tank of water and the water flows through the pipes up to the rack of equipment and then through cold plates mounted on the hot electrical components. The "hot" water returns back to the chiller to cool off and get pumped back through the data center again. No water is gained or lost through the entire process. The fear porn around data centers is nuts. When a green is watered on a golf course it is gone to the clouds through evaporation.

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And yet strangely enough, the one being built east of Amarillo has requested 2.5 million gallons per day, with the potential to scale up to 10 million per day.

And the one they want to build down the road from my place in Leon county has already talked publicly about the deep wells they will need to drill.

So please, tell me more about how they don't use water. Bull**** makes good fertilizer.

YouBet said:

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The Ex Officio Director said:

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I know I've asked this question and its more rhetorical than anything. For a state who's whole western boarder is the Pacific Ocean, how the hell do you not have enough water.

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You can ask the same of Texas. We have about the same mileage of coastline as California once you factor bays and we don't have enough water for much of the state.

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I would think, it would be prudent, to build a water treatment plant that could, I don't know, filter salt water into drinking water or water that be used for lets say livestock or date centers. I know crazy thinking, again, just a rhetorical question. Cause lord knows it would cost billions and every government official from local to federal would want their hands on the project.

I need a drink, this whole week as be blah.

FriscoKid said:

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Over_ed said:

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Another comparison...golf courses. Currently Data Centers use ~ 2% of what US golf courses consume. Even if we allow for incredible increase in next 10 years, will still be a small fraction.

I don't golf, but I can hardly wait for the commies to attack elitist country clubs who are profligate wasters of our precious water.

I know...they'll have to pry the 7-iron from your cold, dead hands. Planet of the Apes - maybe it was foreshadowing libs taking over the world? RIP Mr. Heston.

ETA fix typos

---

This is true. Liquid cooling in data centers is a big chiller tank of water and the water flows through the pipes up to the rack of equipment and then through cold plates mounted on the hot electrical components. The "hot" water returns back to the chiller to cool off and get pumped back through the data center again. No water is gained or lost through the entire process. The fear porn around data centers is nuts. When a green is watered on a golf course it is gone to the clouds through evaporation.

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No water is lost in the circulated coolant water, but there are certainly evaporative losses in any water that cools the chiller heat exchanger. And the one Sunray is talking about will be cooled with an evaporative cooling tower which will lose tremendous amounts of water.

Don't forget the pipeline pump energy costs. By definition, every destination from a seawater desalination plant is uphill. It's expensive to pump water uphill

The Ex Officio Director said:

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YouBet said:

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The Ex Officio Director said:

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I know I've asked this question and its more rhetorical than anything. For a state who's whole western boarder is the Pacific Ocean, how the hell do you not have enough water.

---

You can ask the same of Texas. We have about the same mileage of coastline as California once you factor bays and we don't have enough water for much of the state.

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I would think, it would be prudent, to build a water treatment plant that could, I don't know, filter salt water into drinking water or water that be used for lets say livestock or date centers. I know crazy thinking, again, just a rhetorical question. Cause lord knows it would cost billions and every government official from local to federal would want their hands on the project.

I need a drink, this whole week as be blah.

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It would be but getting local officials to do that in some communities has been a monumental challenge.

This is the 3rd or 4th thread where people that don't know what they are talking about start saying that you can't build a DC that doesn't consume a lot of water.

There are many cooling options - if you use an evaporative cooling tower you need make-up water, but there are air cooler to closed loop and refrigeration to closed loop options that don't use any water once operating. Those options use more power, which is why they have not been used at many places where water is cheap. There are also good options to only use treated wastewater that will otherwise be dumped to a river or ocean as make-up. If you want to make sure the data center near you doesn't consume your water, make sure it is priced so it's not the best option.

It takes 1 gallon of water to grow 1 nut.
70-75% of California almonds are exported. Thats 1.1-1.4 million tons.

For a state with massive water issues the almond math really doesn't make much sense.