"In 2023, Google operations worldwide consumed 6.4 billion gallons of water (24.2 billion liters), with 95%, 6.1 billion gallons (23.1 billion liters), used by data centers. Google reports that in 2024, the company’s data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, consumed 1 billion gallons of water (3.8 billion liters), the most of any of its data centers."
digitalinformationworld.com/20…
Inside the Water Crisis of Data Centers: Google, Meta, and the Hidden Costs of AI Growth
As demand for artificial intelligence technology boosts construction and proposed construction of data centers around the world, those comp...Web Desk (Digital Information World)
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Party Sam
in reply to Gerry McGovern • • •The chart shows 2-fold increase compared to 2019. This is nothing. If you weren't worried about Google's water consumption back then, but suddenly are worried now, it's because of AI hate trend, and not because it's a real issue.
Globally, the daily water usage for beef production amounts to approximately 2.49 trillion litres.
Greg Glockner
in reply to Gerry McGovern • • •@briankrebs Note that water is not “used up”: a data center generally puts water in a closed loop where it is circulated inside the data center. Thus, you need water to build a data center but typically little to operate one.
My guess is the growth in water use is tracking the growth in data centers, particularly with all the new systems for generative AI.
Gerry McGovern
in reply to Greg Glockner • • •@gglockner
Not quite true. There are two water systems in a typical data center. One is closed loop and runs around the servers. This water needs to be regularly changed due to various build-ups of microbes, materials. It's full of chemicals and needs to be treated as waste.
When these closed loop pipes get hot, water goes out to cooling towers where vast quantities of water are sprayed on them in a process called evaporative cooling, adding to global crisis of the land drying out
@briankrebs
Greg Glockner
in reply to Gerry McGovern • • •@briankrebs @marijn I can’t speak for all data centers, but I know the one I built over my career. Due to confidentiality, I cannot give all details but I can say that we were the largest tenant in a Seattle colocation facility.
We had a closed loop cooling system that recirculated water. I wasn’t in charge of cooling so I can’t say whether water needed occasional replenishment.
I should have asked about cooling when I visited the supercomputers at Oak Ridge!
tschenkel
in reply to Greg Glockner • • •@CDubbs
That used to be the case in older installations with lower heat density. In those we had a closed loop liquid cooling system (not necessarily water) which transported the heat from the computer racks to be dumped into the environment by a liquid to air heat exchanger. So there was no water "used" apart from replacing the cooling liquid every now and then.
The problem with liquid to air heat exchangers is, that they need to be big and are expensive.
What they do to save that money is use a smaller heat exchanger and spray water on them. The evaporation energy (latent heat) of water is high and evaporation cooling is one of the most efficient cooling methods.
So, the only reason they choose not to use liquid to air heat sinks is cost. Since water use is not regulated it's just cheaper to use evaporation cooling.
In a lobby free political environment there would be regulations that would outlaw evaporation cooling.
Note: yes, the water is not "used" but simply returned to the atmosphere and thus the water cycle. But that is the problem: the local aquifers run dry and a flash flood or hurricane may occur somewhere else. More water in the atmosphere is a driver for extreme weather events.
tschenkel
in reply to Greg Glockner • • •@gglockner @briankrebs @CDubbs
Btw, we still build environmentally friendlier data centres with closed loop air sink systems that don't use water - mostly for scientific workloads. But if your optimisation function is "save money at all cost" then you won't choose those.
Greg Glockner
in reply to tschenkel • • •SIEM Shady
in reply to Gerry McGovern • • •Genuine question, what does "consumed" mean in this context?
Is it returned to sewage processing for recycling?
Is it hoarded in pipes and pumps in these volumes?
Is it hopelessly tainted by additives and requires hazmat disposal?
Is it allowed to evaporate off and rejoin the precipitation cycle?
Not saying it isn't a problem, just trying to understand what type of problem(s).
Gerry McGovern
in reply to SIEM Shady • • •@CDubbs Data centers love the cleanest of water because it cools better when going through the pipes. Even so, it still gets chemically treated because as you recirculate and heat water again and again, nasty things happen.
To cool the pipes down they spray huge quantities of water on them, much of which evaporates. This is a big problem because land masses are drying out, and because of hotter weather, atmosphere can hold more and more water.
SIEM Shady
in reply to Gerry McGovern • • •I sincerely appreciate the response. Confirming I understand for the benefit of others with similar questions.
Problem 1: Hoards water in pipes, pumps, and reservoirs.
Problem 2: Sewage treatement plans may not be able to handle the load of the return flow depending on how maintenance is done.
Problem 3: We're forcing evaporation of water that wouldn't normally occur, and the precipitation cycle is already under stress due to rising global temps.
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Cy
in reply to SIEM Shady • • •Another consequence of the evaporation is that water very rarely rains down where it evaporates, but moves elsewhere. All that catastrophic flooding the news is constantly going on about? Yeah...
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System Adminihater
in reply to Gerry McGovern • • •Bruin
in reply to Gerry McGovern • • •Gerry McGovern
in reply to Bruin • • •