AI’s thirsty secret

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Data center expansion is putting freshwater sources under immense strain, with operators facing an environmental and PR reckoning

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(Image credit: Future)

When people talk about the environmental impacts of data centers, normally the discussion focuses on energy usage. It’s something we’ve talked about at several points this year already, with reference to growing efforts to house AI workloads in green data centers that run on renewable energy to reduce their carbon impact.

But while we can generate nearly limitless amounts of green energy, there is a decidedly finite amount of water in the world – and unfortunately, most data centers need vast amounts of fresh water to cool hardware.

Without care, big tech could push already drought-stricken communities to breaking point.

In this episode, Jane and Rory unpack the growing problem of data center water use, how operators can tackle this, and how it will exacerbate environmental tensions in the near future.

Highlights

“Water resource management is complicated enough with things like industrial runoff, farming runoff, and all of these kinds of issues without then placing data centers into the mix as well. And this is an area that is going to become an increasing problem as AI use and generative AI use grows”

“Water anywhere is not the same as potable, drinkable water that comes from, say, a reservoir or from an aquifer. And as we said in the introduction, these are finite sources. So while 71% of Earth is water-covered, only about 1% of all water is actually drinkable. The majority of freshwater is actually just frozen in the ice caps. So we are looking at a very valuable resource.”

“I know that the OECD AI Policy Observatory has said that in 2027 global ai demand could drive as much as 4.2 to 6.6 billion cubic meters of water withdrawal. Just to put that in context, that is half of the UK's annual water withdrawal. So that's just an incredible amount of water just for global ai demand.”

Footnotes

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Rory Bathgate
Rory Bathgate
Features and Multimedia Editor

Rory Bathgate is Features and Multimedia Editor at ITPro, overseeing all in-depth content and case studies. He can also be found co-hosting the ITPro Podcast with Jane McCallion, swapping a keyboard for a microphone to discuss the latest learnings with thought leaders from across the tech sector.

In his free time, Rory enjoys photography, video editing, and good science fiction. After graduating from the University of Kent with a BA in English and American Literature, Rory undertook an MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies at King’s College London. He joined ITPro in 2022 as a graduate, following four years in student journalism. You can contact Rory at rory.bathgate@futurenet.com or on LinkedIn.