Reclaimed Water, Closed Loops and Heat Reuse
The mitigation options are known and mostly unglamorous. The question is deployment rate, not invention.
Reclaimed and non-potable supply
Treated municipal wastewater, industrial process water and harvested rainwater can serve cooling loads that do not require potable quality. This does not reduce volume; it changes which supply bears it, which is often the decisive point in a local dispute.
Warmer operating envelopes
Raising allowable supply-air and chilled-water temperatures — a standing recommendation in federal efficiency guidance — extends the hours a site can cool without evaporation or mechanical chilling. It is the cheapest lever available and requires no new hardware.
Heat reuse
Rejected heat can be exported to district heating or industrial users where such networks exist. Deployment is concentrated in northern Europe and depends entirely on local infrastructure, not on data center technology.
Estimate, not fact
How quickly closed-loop designs replace evaporative ones across the existing fleet is a projection. Announced designs describe new construction; the installed base turns over slowly.