Data centers use a lot of computational power, requiring a steady supply of water to cool the systems. This means that a few queries of ChatGPT cost water worth a bottle.
Hence tech companies should look for alternate water sources such as collecting rainwater for the thermal management of data centers.
Data centers to consume water enough to meet demand for a small European country
Microsoft in September announced that it had struck a deal to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, to meet its energy needs. With high power demands at their data centers for AI, cloud computing and other technologies, tech companies are willing to reopen closed nuclear plants.
According to Transforma Insights, industry analysts see the world moving from less than 10 billion Internet of Things devices to nearly 30 billion by 2030.
While big tech have been paying much attention to energy, they have forgotten another resource they need – water. The big tech companies are paying little to no attention on the resource that is also as important as energy.
Servers used at data centers generate huge amounts of heat which needs huge amount of water as liquid for cooling systems to absorb and dissipate the servers. Around 6 to 50 ChatGPT requests may need up to 500 milliliters of water, according to researchers at the University of California.
Increased AI development by Google in 2022 consumed 20% more water than the amount they used in 2021, in the same period, Microsoft said it consumed 34% more water. In the next three years, it is predicted that water consumed by the big tech will be equal to the water demanded by a small European nation.
Research has shown that most of the data centers are located in areas where water is scarce as was the case with the Dalles, Oregon data center owned by Google that consumed one third of the city’s water supply in drought conditions.
However, tech companies are beginning to be aware of the water need and some companies are now entering into water recycling whilst some are being more ambitious with seawater transportation to land, or set up data centers under the ocean.
Rainwater could provide solutions to big tech’s data center headaches
In an attempt to be proactive, some firms have advocated for rainwater harvesting, with the water being collected from rooftops into tanks through gutters. The water is then channeled through pipes to cool the servers.
Some US states are beginning to soften laws as they restrict residential and industrial rainwater harvesting because of concerns about water quality or reductions in the water supply. Some states are offering incentives and establishing requirements like Tucson and Austin. Besides tech companies, Ford and Toyota have begun rainwater harvesting at their manufacturing facilities.
Data centers are heavy users that are not yet using water harvesting as a means to get the amounts needed to cool down servers. Data centers are also perfect candidates for water harvesting due to their infrastructure design of large flat roofs. An inch of rain on a 50,000 square foot roof will collect water enough to fill a moderate residential swimming pool equal to 31,000 gallons.
The question has been asked why data centers are not using rainwater harvesting since the cost of setting a commercial facility costs between $2 to $5 per square foot depending on complexity of the system, storage, and filtration needs.
The investment however depends on the cost of municipal water in an area because if it is lower, then the investment would not make sense.
Data centers need about a million liters of water which might not be covered by harvested water, but with climate change and rising cost of water, the benefits of a water harvesting system also increase.
The good thing is that tech giants have begun to get onto the systems with Google now using rainwater retention ponds to harvest water at its data center in South Carolina, as another big tech Microsoft has implemented the system at its data center in Sweden. Amazon has begun to look at doing the same at their sites as noted in their water positive strategy.
Land a High-Paying Web3 Job in 90 Days: The Ultimate Roadmap
