Shadowing Practice: Powering The Internet is Becoming a Big Problem - Learn English Speaking with Video
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We're experiencing one of the fastest building booms the world has ever seen,
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described as a global construction frenzy that shows no signs of slowing.
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Humanity is now dependent on large -scale data centres and that demand is only increasing.
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But the strain this infrastructure is placing on our power and water sources is enormous And people are starting to notice.
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Many neighboring homeowners say, not in my backyard.
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That opposition is forcing some tech giants to rethink where they should build.
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The data center industry is actually going to be responsible for 3 -4 % of global electricity consumption, so that's a huge sector.
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And now, with AI taking our reliance to a whole new level,
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Well, this rapidly growing area of industry is under pressure to clear up its act and fast.
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But with these buildings now consuming as much energy as entire countries, what can we actually do about it?
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This is what a typical data centre looks like in 2026.
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And if you live in, or close to, a major city, there's a good chance you'll have one nearby.
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Because there are now more than 11 ,000 of these worldwide across 174 countries.
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And, unsurprisingly, over a third of them are in the USA.
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Some of the largest clusters are in places you might expect, like Texas and California.
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But the state with the most is actually… Virginia.
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The UK and Germany are way behind in second and third, and the rest are pretty well spread around the globe, because if they weren't absolutely everywhere,
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we wouldn't be able to do all those things that have become an essential part of our modern lives.
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We don't just mean the important stuff, like online shopping, banking or watching epic construction videos on YouTube.
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Without data centres there'd be no doom scrolling, no long video calls that really could have been an email, or memes that just refused to die.
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And we'd all miss that, wouldn't we?
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But data centres weren't always omnipresent.
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To see how quickly these structures have been expanding, it's best to look at it from from a different perspective.
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After all, we can't do a video on data centres without digging into some, well, data.
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For starters, take a look at this graph.
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It shows the staggering growth in data centres globally over the past 20 years in terms of installed capacity.
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In other words, the total amount of power available for all the equipment needed to run them.
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Notice how things went stratospheric after about 2017.
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The overall figure now stands at more than 122 gigawatts.
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To give you an idea of just how much that really is, the total capacity of Hinkley Point C, the massive new nuclear power plant currently under construction in the UK,
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is around 3 .2 gigawatts.
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That means you'd need 38 Hinkley Point C -sized nuclear plants to power just the world's data centers
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and they're continuing to soar in number and size.
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Before AI we also had many many data centers but those data centers tend to be
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much smaller like less than 100 megawatts
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but today an AI data center can easily be 500 megawatts
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or even more than one gigawatt so the concentration of this large power demand
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and other resource demand like water over a small area.
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That's a big challenge for the infrastructure." By 2030, data centres are set to be consuming more electricity than the entirety of Japan.
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That's double what they were pulling from the grid in 2022.
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And as we've just heard, the main reason for this increase is the meteoric rise of AI.
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AI.
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Every time you chuck something into ChatGPT, it kickstarts a process that uses more electricity and water than many of us realise.
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Just kidding.
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Other channels trying to imitate us might do that, but we certainly don't.
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Now when ChatGPT alone is processing billions of prompts every day, it's no wonder the infrastructure that makes it all happen is having to scale up very fast.
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AI systems were responsible for about 20 % of total data center electricity consumption by the end of...
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2024 and that number could have increased to about half by the end of last year 2025.
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Altogether these numbers are just becoming really big really fast.
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But keeping up with the demand is where things get tricky.
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Data centre construction isn't just about building a great big hall
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and filling it with servers despite how it might appear in footage like this.
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There's actually a lot more to it than that, which is why the biggest facilities being built at the moment are considered mega -projects.
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First of all, you've got to decide where to put them.
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Ideally, you want a place with good fibre connections, water sources and, for the really large ones that handle several hundred megawatts on their own,
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high -capacity power grids.
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Those data centres consume as much power as entire cities and you can't just put those anywhere.
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It's actually really hard to find power grids where there is sufficient capacity to even start building a project like that.
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So at that point power capacity becomes the number one concern." There would have to be plenty of space too, not just enough to squeeze the building into.
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Many are constructed with expansion in mind, expansions that often follow not long after they're finished and with rapid speed.
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The companies behind them are called hyperscalers for a reason.
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Another thing to think about is climate and geography.
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Lower temperatures make it easier to keep everything cool
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and it's generally better
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if you build these things away from places where there are likely to be extreme weather events or natural disasters.
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You see, just like with other big bits of infrastructure, if a data centre goes down it can cause serious problems.
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I don't just mean missing out on the latest TikTok craze.
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We're talking about huge financial losses, service failures, reputational damage – all the kind of things that every company absolutely dreads.
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Alongside all those racks of equipment that have to be kept running 24 -7, the cooling system is a key priority.
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Usually this is done in one of two ways.
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There's the traditional method of circulating cold air into the server racks, normally through the floor with waste heat exiting out at the top.
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While it's effective, even if some of the air is recycled, it's a process that consumes massive amounts of electricity.
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Alternatively, you've got liquid cooling, which is becoming more common as we enter the AI era.
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This method involves using, yes, you guessed it, liquids like water or coolant to transfer the heat away,
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which requires less electricity and often less space.
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But the flip side is that all that water has to come from somewhere and that can cause a pretty big dilemma.
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This water is mostly coming from municipal water supply and that can be stressful for a lot of the public water systems.
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Especially in the US, most of the water systems are small or medium -sized.
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They don't really have a lot of selfless capacity to supply to these large -scale industry users.
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So what can be done to manage these crazy levels of consumption?
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Well, many companies are now prioritising things like liquid cooling,
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investing in their own renewable sources and even funding grid upgrades so they don't push up people's energy bills.
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Others are taking a more unusual approach, including with some techniques that are generating quite a bit of tension.
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Several of the world's biggest tech firms have partnered with nuclear providers.
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These deals would see data centres powered by reliable, low -carbon sources.
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Some are even restarting plants that had previously been closed or are tapping into technology that still hasn't quite arrived yet,
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namely nuclear fusion and small modular reactors.
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Alternatively, you could do what companies in Europe are doing
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and build your data centre underground inside an active mine or a former bunker, both of which are great for security and keeping everything cool.
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But these strategies aren't for everyone, especially companies needing to deliver high performance data centres that are future proof and super efficient right now.
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We're talking about both new builds and upgrades to existing ones.
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For many, investing in atomic energy or hollowing out a mountain isn't really a viable option.
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In fact, In fact, meeting the demands of this new AI -driven era at the speed required is such a challenge
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that it can be hard to know where to begin.
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That's where IES can help.
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IES is a global leader in physics -based building performance simulation and digital twin technology for all building types.
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With its whole -facility approach, users can monitor and optimise the performance of their data centre projects across its full life cycle.
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They can model everything from dynamic IT loads
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and rack layouts to advanced cooling options – all within the context of the local climate.
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By adopting one of IES's AI -ready design strategies, hyperscalers can reach capacities super fast,
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de -risk infrastructure decisions and reduce energy,
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carbon and water use – all while staying in line with increasingly stringent regulations and grid connection requirements.
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Plus, having an IES digital twin provides a performance -focused replica of the facility
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that behaves like its real counterpart – from planning and design to operation and retrofit.
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Then there's IES's end -to -end consulting, from a company that's helped global clients with their digital infrastructure challenges for more than 30 years.
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In fact, IES has already helped one hyperscaler retrofit an existing data centre with liquid cooling.
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It saw them increase capacity from 10 to 50kW per rack,
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cut water use by 95 % and achieve a PUE of 1 .16.
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Meanwhile, in Ireland, 10 data centres were able to lower their space cooling energy loads by around 40 %
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with support from IES consultants.
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If you want to find out more about how dynamic simulation can enhance existing CFD modelling to enable high performance data centres,
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then you're in luck, because IES has just released a brand new white paper on that very subject.
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Inside you'll learn all there is to know about de -risking AI -driven facilities and optimising cooling strategies, while discovering full case studies on how others have made it work.
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To download the white paper for free today and see the full extent of IES's services, just scan the QR code on screen now or click the link in the description.
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So, we've talked about server racks and cooling systems, but you're going to find a lot more inside a data centre than just that.
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There are plenty of other components, some of which might sound quite dull but are actually pretty essential.
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Security, networking, power distribution, etc. which all have their own energy needs.
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The trouble is, having these giant facilities popping up all over the world can have consequences for the surrounding infrastructure and communities.
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It's gotten to a point where some people are starting to oppose these projects, especially in areas with limited resources.
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It always depends on what's your local situation, are you dealing with water scarcity, are you dealing with drought,
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and if you suddenly have a big data centre appearing that's going to consume a lot of electricity
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and there's going to be a lot of water consumed to generate all that electricity, that can really add to your local water stress.
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Places with the highest concentrations of new builds have become hotspots for resistance.
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In Virginia, which now has the nickname Data Center Alley,
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at least 25 projects were reportedly cancelled in 2025 following opposition from locals.
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Hundreds of data centres used over 2 billion gallons of water here in 2023.
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And there have been complaints about noise and pollution,
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because many of them are still hooked into power grids that rely on fossil fuels and have diesel backup generators.
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Elsewhere in the US, others are worried their energy bills are going to go up
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and that not enough is being done to address the impact.
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We are concerned for our public health, we are concerned for the health of our local environment.
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This is going to be a huge energy drain, so my concern is how they're going to manage that.
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We are not going to pay double the amount of our utility bills, do you understand that?
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As for what the future looks like, well, as we've already explained, data centres are only going to get bigger and more widespread.
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And it's happening at a faster rate than anything we've seen before.
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Digital growth is not a new thing.
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We actually had that a lot already in the previous decade, where streaming and cloud and everything else was taking off as well.
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But now with AI, we're dealing with a technology where bigger is better.
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You can make this technology and have the hardware and software more efficient.
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But what it has led to in recent years is
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that those efficiency gains have only been used to make the models even bigger so they can perform even better, so they get adopted at an even larger scale.
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So that's where things really break apart from what we saw previously.
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The pushback we're now seeing highlights how things really do need to change.
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While many of these buildings are appearing almost in people's backyards, those affected can't be ignored.
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Community opposition is a real challenge.
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It's a real concern.
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We have to address it proactively.
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We need to think about how we can accommodate the new industry from the infrastructure side.
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For power, if you have money, you just build up power plants.
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water, you have to get new water sources that are naturally constrained." And yet,
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Shaolay believes the recent media focus on the negative effects of water use in particular
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has actually been a bit overblown because it's not a major issue everywhere.
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If there's enough available to spare, it's still the best way to tackle that all -important cooling problem.
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The way it is presented in the public discussion is usually not very accurate.
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If you look at some of the data centers, they are using water just during the hottest weeks or hottest days of the year.
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So their annual water usage could be very low, but they use a lot of water during the summertime.
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A better solution to look at water is we need to use water responsibly.
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If there's water, I think the benefits of using water should not be denied.
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Like the technology itself, the construction of new data centres has become a complicated subject.
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We can't live without them and they're definitely not going anywhere, in fact quite the opposite of that.
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But if we're going to carry on building these megastructures
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and build them on a scale that's bigger and greater than what we've seen so far, we really are going to have to work out a few bugs in the system first.
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Once again, if you're looking for some guidance on how to make data center AI ready
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and future proof make sure you go and download
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that white paper it's video sponsors like IES
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that enable us to keep making these great videos for you every week
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and we'd really appreciate you guys taking the time to go
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and check them out and as always guys if you enjoyed this video
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and you want to get more from the definitive video channel for construction make sure you're subscribed to the B1M
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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Este vídeo tiene 169 frases y 2556 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 16:40. El hablante habla a un ritmo natural de unas 153 palabras por minuto, cercano a una conversación cotidiana. El 84 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.
Vocabulario clave de este vídeo
15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| infrastructure sustantivo | /ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃə/ | infraestructura |
| grid sustantivo | /ɡɹɪd/ | cuadrícula, matriz |
| consume verbo | /kənˈsum/ | consumir |
| rack sustantivo | /ɹæk/ | estante, estantería |
| server sustantivo | /ˈsɝvɚ/ | servidor |
| liquid sustantivo | /ˈlɪk.wɪd/ | líquido |
| consumption sustantivo | /kənˈsʌmp.ʃən/ | consumo, consumición |
| efficient adjetivo | /ɪˈfɪʃənt/ | eficiente, eficaz |
| twin sustantivo | /twɪn/ | gemelo, gemela |
| invest verbo | /ɪnˈvɛst/ | invertir, insumir |
| dynamic adjetivo | /daɪˈnæm.ɪk/ | dinámico |
| enable verbo | /ɪˈneɪ.bəl/ | habilitar, posibilitar |
| concentration sustantivo | /ˌkɑn.sənˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/ | concentración |
| upgrade verbo | /əpˈɡɹeɪd/ | embonar, mejorar |
| generate verbo | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/ | generar |
Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| clear up verbo | /klɪəˈɹʌp/ | esclarecer, aclarar |
| find out verbo | averiguar, anoticiarse | |
| go up verbo | subir | |
| keep up with verbo | seguir, ir al paso | |
| pop up verbo | aparecerse | |
| take off verbo | quitarse |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 44 contracciones y formas reducidas, como we're, don't, we've. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.
- Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: consumption /kənˈsʌmp.ʃən/, efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/, concentration /ˌkɑn.sənˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/, simulation /ˌsɪm.jəˈleɪ.ʃn̩/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: infrastructure /ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃə/, electricity /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/, concentration /ˌkɑn.sənˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/, alternatively /ɔlˈtɝ.nə.tɪv.li/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/
Cómo practicar con este vídeo
- Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
- Empieza a velocidad 0,75×, haz shadowing frase por frase y vuelve a la velocidad normal cuando te resulte fácil.
- Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como infrastructure, grid, consume.
Gramática en este vídeo
Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:
| Estructura | En el vídeo |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora | has ever seen · have become · we've just heard |
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | are set · being built · are constructed |
| Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosa | that, which is · cooling, which is |
¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?
Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.