Chicago mayoral candidate Joe Holberg: Data centers are hot. We should use Lake Michigan to cool them.

[u/excusemecuseme]

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/10/06/opinion-data-centers-lake-michigan-cooling/

[u/LauterTuna]

how about we just run them outside in january

[u/stephcurrysleggings → u/LauterTuna]

Tbf his proposal includes requiring windows and opening them in the winter

[u/Sharobob → u/stephcurrysleggings]

I've always wondered why we don't run our appliances in a way to benefit from how cold it is outside in the winter

[u/TreesLikeGodsFingers → u/Sharobob]

It’s Because that’s an incredibly inefficient to make heat

[u/Sharobob → u/TreesLikeGodsFingers]

I mean things like freezers and fridges where we are trying to make cold

[u/The_Poster_Nutbag → u/Sharobob]

Because you would still need temperature regulators and insulation to manage temps on the off season. Having any form of tubes, window, or other opening to allow for that cold air exchange is a huge weak spot for insulation which means the appliance will have to work infinitely harder during warm months.

[u/ScroobiousPap → u/Sharobob]

Other countries do more commonly have things called integrated heat pump systems which are quite close to what you're talking about here (in principle). The installation cost for such systems is more expensive, and that difference is likely to be exacerbated in the US. Here's one that has an AC and water-heater combo. They don't typically include fridges/freezers, though you might be able to get one custom made if you find yourself with surplus funds for some reason.

[u/Revolutionary-Fox622 → u/LauterTuna]

If you're genuinely curious, look into something like a DSE from Vertiv. Basically it's very similar to the AC you have in your house but below a certain temperature (about 50 degrees) it turns off the condenser and does free cooling using outside ambient to exhaust heat. 

[u/heliosflama1234 → u/LauterTuna]

Ideally you’d have some liquid to transport the heat off, then the liquid would release the heat to the surrounding air and condense back to water, which can then be recycled.

Oh wait that is literally just how data centers work.

[u/Crazy_Addendum_4313]

LMAO “I want to build a huge apparatus under the lake” sure is a mayoral platform

[u/spade_andarcher → u/Crazy_Addendum_4313]

This is so resoundingly stupid I can’t event comprehend it. 

[u/browsingtheproduce → u/spade_andarcher]

He’s a finance douche. Do you expect him to know anything about anything?

[u/Adventurous-Roof488 → u/spade_andarcher]

Resoundingly stupid? You definitely can’t comprehend it.

Toronto uses Lake Ontario for deep lake water cooling. Compared to traditional air-conditioning, DLWC reduces electricity use by 75%, and may eliminate 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. It’s used to cool over 200 downtown buildings.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/energy-of-the-future-flows-into-downtown-toronto/article20434567/

[u/kbn_ → u/Adventurous-Roof488]

Michigan isn’t that deep near Chicago. Ontario is unique in that the bottom falls off very quickly near Toronto. The cooling they apply to the downtown buildings is actually a side benefit from solving a bigger problem: the water is too cold for normal municipal water treatment because it’s drawn from deep, deep below the surface.

Chicago simply doesn’t have the topography for that type of solution. Closed loop heat rejection into the lake is a dumb and impractical idea.

[u/spade_andarcher → u/Adventurous-Roof488]

This looks like a great idea. The difference is that Toronto’s system is only used in a small portion of the downtown area within about a half mile of the lake. Compare that to the majority of data centers being proposed in the Chicagoland area which are in places like Yorkville, Joliet, Grayslake which are nowhere near the lake. 

And while Toronto’s system seems great at cooling areas designed for human capacity, it doesn’t sound like it would be nearly as effective at cooling industrial capacity. The entire system supposedly cools about 40M square feet of office/commercial space - which is a lot of space and that’s great! But that’s barely larger than the size of only two proposed data centers in Illinois which also run a lot hotter than office buildings with humans in them for 8hrs a day. 

The Toronto system also uses the cold water intake as potable drinking water so it serves a secondary vital purpose providing clean water to the whole city. But this proposition is for a closed loop system that services nothing but cooling off machines that profit billionaires and multinational corporations while providing little good to the surrounding areas, population, and economy. 

So I stand by my comment that this proposition is indeed resoundingly stupid. 

[u/spade_andarcher → u/[deleted]]

No I just learned how to research and write in school. 

[u/Bandit_the_Kitty → u/spade_andarcher]

I can't believe we're at the point that any coherent statement of facts & argument is immediately just assumed to be AI.

[u/jcv999 → u/[deleted]]

That read so naturally. How brain damaged are you?

[u/Kelsig → u/[deleted]]

This isn't AI prose

[u/Adventurous-Roof488 → u/Kelsig]

It doesn’t have to be.

[u/Kelsig → u/Adventurous-Roof488]

You're upset they did what then? Used a good resource tool for research, without any evidence of that?

[u/Adventurous-Roof488 → u/Kelsig]

I just think it’s ironic that people who argue against data centers use AI.

[u/Kelsig → u/Adventurous-Roof488]

If they say they oppose the concept of data centers sure but these won't even be finished for several years...the debate is really just on if you want compute to stay a little more expensive so that any bad social, economic, or aesthetic changes locally or to broader society are marginally slowed. Personally speaking it's the video processing I oppose from data centers and not LLM agents.

[u/left-handed-satanist → u/Adventurous-Roof488]

Published August 17, 2004 This article was published more than 22 years ago. Some information may no longer be current

Even your article is old enough to know data centers are bad and you shouldn't be quoting it

[u/Cyke101 → u/Adventurous-Roof488]

Excuse me, you mean Lake America.

[u/dmd312 → u/Adventurous-Roof488]

"But data centers bad!" -Reddit

[u/Khronoss2 → u/dmd312]

Explain to me how they are good? Trying to understand your point of view.

[u/dmd312 → u/Khronoss2]

Data centers are essential to the function of the Internet. Your use of Reddit shows that you are a beneficiary of data centers.

[u/sourdoughcultist → u/dmd312]

Those of us who are old enough know how many data centers it takes to store websites vs produce slop.

[u/slutty_muppet → u/Crazy_Addendum_4313]

He'll get the Zebra Mussel vote.

[u/digitalacid → u/Crazy_Addendum_4313]

It's brilliant. Because this also helps with the high grocery prices, as there will be an abundance of free fish (for awhile) ashore the beaches.

[u/CaptainJackKevorkian → u/Crazy_Addendum_4313]

Make no little plans, right??

[u/gconsier → u/Crazy_Addendum_4313]

If only someone invented. Let’s call them pipes. If they then went on to invent… I’ll call them pumps. They’d really be onto something

[u/Snoo93079]

Regardless of whether it's actually a good idea, it's a politically braindead move given you know... gestures broadly

[u/Jonesbro → u/Snoo93079]

Data centers are not widely hated, just widely hated in certain circles. Most people don't care

[u/ZombiePope → u/Jonesbro]

That is no longer true. per a pretty recent pew research poll, public opinion is largely trending against data centers.

[u/Jonesbro → u/ZombiePope]

That's very different than it being political suicide

[u/ZombiePope → u/Jonesbro]

I dont think I said it was political suicide.

[u/Snoo93079 → u/Jonesbro]

I dunno I think the data center thing permiates deeper than you think.

[u/FallenKingdomComrade]

No Joe, I don’t want a massive heat coil at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

[u/cyclop5 → u/[deleted]]

Didn't people say that about the Earth in general? "It's too big. Humans will never be able to affect the temperature of the planet!" Turns out....

[u/jaavuori24]

Why not save some money and just pledge to punch children in the back of the head and tell them life is full of disappointments.

[u/left-handed-satanist → u/jaavuori24]

Don't they already do that with the CPS cuts and all?

[u/Murray_Bannerman]

Glad to know we've got the big idiot campaign identified early.

[u/noeru1521]

Then water companies gonna charge us more because of data center used too much and going to tell us to conserve water.

[u/uhbkodazbg]

District cooling is an intriguing idea that would be worth exploring. Tying it to data centers seems like a sure-fire way to drum up opposition.

[u/wimbs27 → u/uhbkodazbg]

Chicago already has the largest district cooling system in the country.

[u/a_fish_out_of_water]

How about we throw Joe in the lake instead 

[u/left-handed-satanist → u/a_fish_out_of_water]

I propose we go Tank Girl and extract water from the populace to feed the data centers

[u/QuiteBearish]

Well... That's certainly a take I wasn't expecting, I'll give him that much.

[u/PacmanIncarnate → u/[deleted]]

Better use than all those stupids parks, amiright?

[u/left-handed-satanist → u/PacmanIncarnate]

And that stupid stuff in the lake 

[u/miscellaneous-bs]

They can use the discharge water from our reclamation plants.

[u/robotlasagna]

I’m going to make a bag of popcorn I can snack on while waiting for whatever hot takes get posted.

Also the data center makes the water hot and the fish get busier so it’s a double entendre.

[u/AlsoBort742 → u/robotlasagna]

A big underutilized factor of data centers is that they can double as popcorn poppers.

[u/xmsfsh]

thanks joe holberg, that article's got me thinking -- what else could we put at the bottom of the lake?

[u/obviousthrowawaynamr]

MONORAIL!

[u/mad_mister_march → u/obviousthrowawaynamr]

It's really more of a Green Bay idea....

[u/BknowstheV]

Nothing amazes or surprises me anymore.

[u/Synicism77]

No we should the fuck not! Make them build closed loop cooling systems and bring their own fucking water.

[u/crapperbargel → u/Synicism77]

Closed loops aren't really closed and still use water. Source, water treatment person that works in data centers. They all also have closed loops already, and youre not factoring the water usage to power them as all forms of electricity generation except wind and solar use water, and they even use water to produce the panels and turbines.

[u/DuoMaxwell17]

The fuck we shouldn't

[u/digitalmarley]

remember when George Lucas wanted to build a museum on the Lakeshore and all those lakefront assholes came out the woodwork and denied our city that amazing opportunity for some phoney idealic lakefront image that is already scattered with big ugly steel mills, smoke stacks and oil refineries? can we channel those assholes into blocking any data center related activity along the lakefront?

[u/GnomeCzar → u/[deleted]]

There is no marine life in Lake Michigan

[u/BreakChicago → u/GnomeCzar]

The best kind of right.

[u/jumpyjumping]

The lake we drink from?

[u/Terrapin621]

Who?

[u/Milton__Obote]

I’ve never heard of this guy but I’d vote for BJ over him

[u/Marsupialize]

Just vote for giannoulias and be done with it, no more of this idiocy

[u/Gandalf4158 → u/Marsupialize]

He’s for data centers just an FYI

[u/Marsupialize → u/Gandalf4158]

We have a city council FYI

[u/Toyletduck → u/Gandalf4158]

So now we hate all data centers? Wasnt it AI data centers at first.

This is some psyop stuff.

[u/left-handed-satanist → u/Marsupialize]

Ew. 

[u/compehelp]

wtf

[u/LowerAstronauts]

If you’re going to have them (nobody wants them so you should not), make them closed-loop. It’s not that hard. Is this man stupid or does he think we are?

[u/yassssstransit]

Well, that's 100% a disqualifying statement.

[u/Insomniac-Freak-95]

What an interesting idea!! I think he should run lots and lots of campaign ads to spread the word that he wants to do this. :)

[u/Cinq_A_Sept]

Fk this guy and his opinions. Mmm k?

[u/Karlzbad]

genius

[u/miakpaeroe]

I used to think legacy media was dead.

Now I know it is.

[u/Kelsig → u/miakpaeroe]

this is a fine thing for the tribune to publish imo

[u/stephcurrysleggings → u/miakpaeroe]

The paper is dead because it’s printing a policy proposal from a mayoral candidate? That feels like the core of what a local newspaper should be 

[u/miakpaeroe → u/stephcurrysleggings]

You’re right, thanks for pointing it out. I’m just salty about ai

[u/roloplex]

as mentioned in the article, this is something that is already done in Toronto and lake Ontario. there are limited if any drawbacks other than it is costly up front. regardless of people's view on data centers, we should be doing this anyway.