this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2026
223 points (99.1% liked)

Technology

87279 readers
3161 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
223
Wallonia is turning off the tap for Google and banning water cooling at a new datacenter. Wallonia's Minister of Spatial Planning refusing to issue a modified permit for this purpose (www.nieuwsblad.be)
submitted 1 day ago by stumu415@lemmy.zip to c/technology@lemmy.world
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The American technology giant wanted to cool the new data center with water from the nearby river. The data center, which is almost complete, retains its air cooling system. The Walloon administration for Waterways had previously given a positive advice, after which the amended permit was granted. 

But after investigation, Desquesnes, the Minister for Spatial Planning, decided to refuse the permit as a precaution. According to him, the current drought in Wallonia and the consequences of climate change cause too much uncertainty. “I don't want to commit myself to a hydrological context that is changing dramatically”, he explained Le Soir.

The minister says he has insufficient certainty that the Walloon Region can continue to bear the requested water consumption in the coming years. “There is a risk that the responsibility of the Region, including financially, will be jeopardized.”

Google confirms that it analyzing the decision. The company can appeal the minister's decision to the Council of State.

top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Damage@feddit.it 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wallonia is a Belgian region

[–] Frostbeard@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Think the only thing Wallonia and Flandern agree upon is that they dont want to be France or the Netherlands. I only know people from Flandern so can't speak for Wallonians and their travels, but even I as a Norwegian has been more often to Wallonia than my Flemish friends.

[–] CareHare@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

I am from Flanders, your statement is pretty much spot on most of the time. I do love my country though, there should be more love between our two regions.

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Most wallonians I know rarely travel to Flanders because they don't speak Flemish and the people there refuse to speak ~~normal~~ french

[–] Blaster_M@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Yes. Open loop water cooling should not be a thing right now. Figure out how to air cool or closed-loop please.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Air cooling is probably not possible at modern data center scale (at least AI data centers, they have ridiculous power density), closed loop cooling very much is, but it takes more power so it's cheaper to just evaporate a ton of air unfortunately.

Going to need bills like this everywhere, or water prices raised significantly for non-home usage.

As far as I understand, they use air conditioning PLUS water cooling. As in, the water is used to cool the AC condensers. Because even just AC alone isn't cutting it.

[–] kokesh@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well done! Let's turn the water down for all those fuckers.

[–] Gerblat@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They don’t get no water, let the motherfuckers burn.

Burn, motherfuckers. Burn

[–] kokesh@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

🎶🎵