OpenAI has abandoned plans to cool its planned S7 data center in Sydney, Australia, with recycled water.
Data center site – NextDC
According to reports from Reuters, OpenAI nixed the plans in favor of a closed-loop liquid cooling system. While the system would bring water usage down significantly, it would require significantly more energy than the previous cooling system.
The 612MW facility had initially planned to use sewage water to cool the servers, which would have reduced dependence on potable water sources and significantly lowered the cooling system's energy requirements. However, after failing to secure planning permission to build a pipeline to serve the data center, NextDC, the developer, decided to change its plans.
"Recycled water ... has real merit and it can support lower PUE and better overall sustainability and NextDC considers it wherever that infrastructure exists," CEO Craig Scroggie said in an email to Reuters.
