Why do data centres use fresh water instead of recycled water? In the summer of 2023, Montevideo, Uruguay, faced its worst drought in 74 years. Authorities were forced to mix saltwater into the public drinking supply to keep taps running.
At the same time, Google announced plans to build a data centre in the region to support services like YouTube and Gmail, an operation estimated to consume 7.6 million litres of fresh water daily. Recent research suggests that by 2027, AI systems alone could consume as much water annually as the total amount of bottled water drunk worldwide. To understand the water demand, we first have to understand the heat.
Think of data centres as giant warehouses packed with servers that turn electricity into computing power and heat. Data centres are already extremely hot, and with the rise of AI usage, this heat intensity is skyrocketing. So to keep these computers from frying, most facilities use evaporative cooling towers.
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As the Uptime Institute explains, a 1-megawatt data centre using traditional cooling can consume about 6.75 million gallons of water per year. This water isn’t just sitting in pipes; it evaporates into the air to whisk away the heat (think of sweat cooling a human body). While it is technically possible to use recycled water, the vast majority of data centres rely on fresh water for several reasons.
Recycled water could cause chemical complications Data centre cooling equipment is expensive and sensitive, and using non-potable water can result in chemical complications. According to the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact, using potable water is often chosen because it is low-cost and easy to implement compared to treating alternative water sources.
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