• Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Great idea. And for each data center ship you can have a desalination ship for the cooling water. And both will burn bunker fuel, of course.

    • a_gee_dizzle@lemmy.ca
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      3 hours ago

      Would the water need to be desalinated if it’s only going to be cooling the equipment?

      • dustyData@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        If you want the cooling system to survive, yes.

        Ocean water is atrociously corrosive, prone to clogging tubes and short circuits much more easily than distilled water.

        • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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          52 minutes ago

          Exactly. You could of course construct a ship with a closed inner cooling cycle that then dumps the heat to the outside ocean through cooling fins or the like. But that would require developing new technology and building new ships. That would take time and cost money. We can’t possibly do that because line must go up now!

          • Talcosis@lemmy.zip
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            9 minutes ago

            Not new technology, this is how the water heater on my boat works. Closed loop cycle that dumps engine heat into the hot water tank. There’s also a secondary inline heater I can turn on for when I’m entirely on sails.