In a recent article for The Conversation, Peyton McCauley, Water Policy Specialist, and Professor Melissa Scanlan, Director, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Center for Water Policy examined the growing water demands of data centers driven by artificial intelligence, and why transparency and a consistency in the tracking and reporting of water use is needed.
As demand for artificial intelligence technology boosts construction and proposed construction of data centers around the world, those computers require not just electricity and land, but also a significant amount of water. Data centers use water directly, with cooling water pumped through pipes in and around the computer equipment. They also use water indirectly, through the water required to produce the electricity to power the facility. The amount of water used to produce electricity increases dramatically when the source is fossil fuels compared with solar or wind.
Data centers consume massive amounts of water – companies rarely tell the public exactly how much – The Conversation