Why not just require the data centers to use a closed loop cooling system? There's one being built near me in western Canada, and they were required to do that there.
HVAC engineer here: Single-pass evaporative cooling uses a fraction (like, a tenth) of the electrical power closed-loop dry coils do. It's impressively effective. (did a comparative analysis a couple months ago on a much smaller scale)
The problem is as the article briefly alluded to: power plants use single-pass evaporative cooling.... a LOT. Do you want to cool the power plant or the data center?
The math is a lot closer than you think and depends on the renewables mix in power generation, local weather (even at night), the cost of water, etc.
Hassle me if you want a better writeup here / in the forums about the tradeoffs, but remember that nothing in this life is simple.
The best solution I have seen is to, as a country, not care about the ability to generate convincing facsimiles of stuff without effort or skill - GLHF. Try that without a community of support and economics will show up at your door to break your knees, then shove you in a robotaxi to take you back to work.
