This is only a problem if the datacenters are not powered by renewables. Nearly all renewables are the result of solar energy, AKA photons, AKA heat that is hitting the Earth regardless of what we do with it. Solar panels are obvious, but even for wind, it’s the result of the sun heating different regions of the atmosphere at different rates, converting thermal energy from the sun to kinetic energy in the air. A wind turbine converts some of this kinetic energy to electrical energy (which slows the air down ever so slightly), which is dissipated as heat mostly in the data center. The thing is, if the wind turbine didn’t exist, whatever kinetic energy that would have been captured would directly be dissipated as heat anyway in the form of friction in the air. Renewables only move solar heat around, and doesn’t generate heat of its own. Even with geothermal energy, where in theory you’re bringing heat that was trapped in the Earth to the surface, the geothermal sources we can practically take advantage of are already so close to the surface they would have been released through simple conduction anyway.
It is only when you burn fossil fuels that you’re actively generating heat that would otherwise have stayed as chemical energy. But even the heat from this not the actual concern, it’s the byproducts it generates that cause solar energy that would have been released into space to be trapped in the atmosphere. The heat generated isn’t even a rounding error compared to retaining even 1% more solar energy in the air. Same for nuclear where you’re reducing the overall binding energy inside atom cores and the reduction in energy is equal to the heat generated.
This is only a problem if the datacenters are not powered by renewables. Nearly all renewables are the result of solar energy, AKA photons, AKA heat that is hitting the Earth regardless of what we do with it. Solar panels are obvious, but even for wind, it’s the result of the sun heating different regions of the atmosphere at different rates, converting thermal energy from the sun to kinetic energy in the air. A wind turbine converts some of this kinetic energy to electrical energy (which slows the air down ever so slightly), which is dissipated as heat mostly in the data center. The thing is, if the wind turbine didn’t exist, whatever kinetic energy that would have been captured would directly be dissipated as heat anyway in the form of friction in the air. Renewables only move solar heat around, and doesn’t generate heat of its own. Even with geothermal energy, where in theory you’re bringing heat that was trapped in the Earth to the surface, the geothermal sources we can practically take advantage of are already so close to the surface they would have been released through simple conduction anyway.
It is only when you burn fossil fuels that you’re actively generating heat that would otherwise have stayed as chemical energy. But even the heat from this not the actual concern, it’s the byproducts it generates that cause solar energy that would have been released into space to be trapped in the atmosphere. The heat generated isn’t even a rounding error compared to retaining even 1% more solar energy in the air. Same for nuclear where you’re reducing the overall binding energy inside atom cores and the reduction in energy is equal to the heat generated.