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UK government suggests deleting files to save water (www.theverge.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 25 points 1 year ago (11 children)

straight up not feasible for many serious and necessary facilities like powerplants and refineries, unless you prefer very warm lake or river nearby (which also cools down by evaporation later)

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  • [–] 52 points 1 year ago* (5 children)

    straight up not feasible

    It's very feasible to create the law, collect the fine, and raise the price on energy sources or industrial process that require the cooling.

    It's a formality, you could do it in an afternoon. Costs a bit of ink and a piece of paper.

    "But then it gets more expensive!" and "This might push corporations out of the city/country." is the consequence the people / the government / the country have to have the balls to endure, if they want to stand by things like "having enough water" or "living on earth in the 22nd century".

    If the free market is something you believe in, you should love this, because it makes water a more scarce resource and the market will be able to find another optimal solution to that new scarcity problem.

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  • [+] -10 points 1 year ago* (4 children)

    Show me how do you want to dissipate 10GWt inland without evaporative cooling towers, i'll wait

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago

    summitsystems.co.uk/adiabatic-coolers-vs-cooling-towers/

    There are many solutions to this problem. Evaporative cooling is just the cheapest. But it's only cheap because we don't charge these water users market rates for water. If they're threatening drinking water or agricultural water we should just charge them for water usage the same as you pay for drinking water at home. That's fundamentally what they're taking when they drain the rivers dry. That way they compete directly on the water market instead of bypassing it.

    They'll install adiabatic coolers in no time.

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  • [–] 24 points 1 year ago

    If evaporative cooling is the only solution then the market will adjust to the new cost by moving power generation towards the coasts or just increase the price, if there are other solutions they’ll become the economically more viable. Either way more water is conserved and you can always balance the cost benefit by adjusting the fine/tax to find a good balance.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    They could heat many houses or fill many heat reservoirs instead.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Depending on local climate, season and proximity to cities or industrial customers, this is often done, but you'll still have to dump lots of heat in the summer when space heating is off

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