AI has a water problem. Google thinks it has a solution

In the face of widespread backlash over AI data center construction across the United States, Google is touting its efforts to reduce environmental impact by actually increasing water for local communities.

The company made five commitments around new water use Blog post published on Wednesday, including a goal of replenishing more water than it uses in its data centers by 2030. Google also said it will invest in local water infrastructure, identify alternative water sources to power its facilities, and will commit to being transparent about its water use overall.

“We’re just one of dozens of players in this space,” said Ben Townsend, global head of infrastructure and sustainability at Google. Edge In an interview. “We think it’s really important to create a blueprint that communities can refer to, so if someone else comes along and says, ‘We’d like to build a data center there,’ the community can say, ‘Okay, here are five different things that put the community and the watershed first.’ Do you do these things? Do you do one of them? All of them? None of it? If not, why?

Commitments come amid growth Opposing rapid data center construction Helping meet the broad power needs of artificial intelligence. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, recently said it wanted to He raised $80 billion from stock sales To finance its construction of the technology. Modern Gallup poll It found that more than 70 percent of Americans oppose the idea of ​​establishing a data center in their area. Half of respondents cited the impact of data centers on environmental resources as a motivation behind their opposition, including 18 percent who cited excessive water use as a problem.

AI data centers require huge amounts of water for cooling, with a recent study finding that the technology uses as much water per year as people drink from bottled water around the world. Google’s previous estimates of its use of water in artificial intelligence It was misleadingAccording to some researchers, who say they overlook the indirect use of water. Widespread concerns over resources have led to a wave of commitments across the industry Limit water use and Block data centers from Raising consumer energy prices.

But Google’s Townsend defended the company’s track record so far. “As much as we can, we take into account the off-site water footprint, and I believe we have made significant progress in reducing or eliminating the water footprint of this supply chain through our investments in non-hydro renewable energy,” Townsend said.

In the blog post, Bikash Kohli, Google’s vice president of global infrastructure, says using water in data centers can reduce overall energy use. “In many places, water cooling can reduce data center energy use by about 10% compared to air cooling,” Cooley says. “Total data center water consumption is small – U.S. data centers use less than 1% of the water Americans use on their lawns annually – but we are focused on protecting local water resources in all aspects of our data center operations.”

Cooley says Google will be able to renew more water than it consumes in the next four years Investing in projects That improves things like irrigation and infrastructure. She promises to continue reporting her annual water use and look for alternative sources such as reclaimed wastewater, as she has done In a county in Georgia. The company also announced $17 million to support new water management projects in seven states.

Those who worry about data centers sucking up all their water have valid concerns, Townsend said, though he says they may be using less water than people think. “It would be a real disservice to space to say there are just misconceptions,” Townsend said. “That’s not true.” But he added that the data center industry does not use as much water as people think, and now is a good time to invest in making sure that “water use in data centers is not an issue.”