Data center operators are trying to solve their water usage problems

On Monday, SpaceX I adjusted for her Initial public offering To point out that water conditions – including water scarcity, water regulations, and drought – can hinder the development of data centers.

It’s not the only technology company trying to assess how water scarcity will impact its business. Water use stands out as one of The most controversial data center issues. Recent Gallup reconnaissance It found that seven in 10 Americans oppose data center development, with water scarcity ranked as the top resource concern. Facing increasingly fierce resistance, some technology companies are seeking to reassure the public that they are confronting this problem head-on.

Data centers primarily use water to cool server racks, eliminating massive amounts of heat. One common technique, known as evaporative cooling, uses fresh water to absorb heat, which is then pumped to cooling towers where it evaporates outside.

Using more water could save money and reduce emissions for big tech companies by reducing the energy needed for cooling that relies on energy-intensive pumps to recycle water. But they can also come with a large water footprint: for example, Google’s facility in Council Bluffs, Iowa, which uses evaporative cooling, Expendables More than 1 billion gallons in 2024.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory anticipation In a 2024 report, hyperscale data centers could consume up to 33 billion gallons of water by 2030 if they rely heavily on evaporative cooling. This is equivalent to or even less than other thirsty industries, such as agriculture or oil and gas It cracked well Between 1.5 and 16 million gallons of water can be used, but it poses a risk in areas where water is already scarce. The risk is particularly acute in the summer, when data center cooling needs tend to rise dramatically at the same time as municipal water use.

“Water is a very local and regional issue,” says Shaoli Ren, an engineering professor at the University of California, Riverside. “They are limited resources, and we have to manage them very carefully.”

Some tech giants, including Microsoft, OpenAI and Oracle, have made statements in recent months suggesting they are moving away from evaporative cooling entirely in order to save water. This includes OpenAI and Oracle’s massive expansion of Stargate into a number of states, including a water-shortage area in Texas.

Google takes a different approach. On Wednesday, the company rolled out a series of water-related commitments to communities with its data centers, along with funding announcements for water-related projects in the United States.

They include pledges to replenish more fresh water than the company consumes, through investments in local water projects; Expanding the use of reclaimed and recycled water; And detection of annual water use in data centers. (Other tech companies, including Microsoft, have similar promises regarding water replenishment and local investment. Google has been working on most of these pledges for a few years.) There’s also a promise to use a “data-driven framework” to determine which data center designs will work best for local watersheds.

Data center design is much more complex than just using one type of cooling in all cases, says Ben Townsend, Google’s global head of infrastructure and sustainability. He says the company has been conducting detailed hydrological assessments of its sites for the past four years to determine what types of cooling are best.

“Water is scarce in some areas and available in others,” he says. “A one-size-fits-all strategy will not work.”

In April, Google motive Evaporative cooling for areas with what it called “abundant” water in a submission to the European Union as essential for developing truly sustainable data centres. Google’s arguments align with new research by Ren and his team, who found that if all data centers in the US adopted some type of evaporative cooling during peak demand, it could free up an additional 10 to 30 gigawatts of power. In areas where grids are stressed but water resources are not, using evaporative cooling can free up significant space for utilities trying to balance the load.