All-time high global temperatures: Data centers under microscope

As the US's Lake Mead, the country's largest reservoir, reaches 'dead pool' levels and the Southwest experiences a record drought, the incredible amount of water guzzled by data centers is increasingly being put under the microscope. Despite a raft of sustainability pledges being made by big tech and data center companies, it is becoming apparent that many still aren't using the most efficient cooling methods.

According to reports, many of the current data centers in use across the US are consuming vast amounts of water each day, estimated to be around 3 million to 5 million gallons. That said, while this is the estimated figure, many companies fail even to track their water consumption, so the true figure is unknown.

Of course, this is not an issue isolated to the US, and globally there are serious concerns around water security. Subsequently, the US government is now approaching water shortage as a national security issue for the first time and has created an Action Plan on Global Water Security.

Despite this being an increasingly concerning situation, Arman Shehabi, a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, speaking to Protocol, said that it is "pretty new on the radar" for these companies and a low priority when deciding on a data center location. Arno van Gennip, the vice president of Operations Engineering at Equinix, echoed these sentiments, outlining, "If you don't measure, you cannot manage." He said that while, when it comes to energy usage, there are efficiency metrics that have aided in improving the area, with water, the industry is not quite there yet. Gennip added that as water becomes an increasingly precious resource, it's an area where the industry needs to be "prepared."

However, considering the buildup of this issue over recent years and increased awareness of the effects of climate change, arguably, it should already be something that companies are targeting. Speaking about this, Jay Dietrich, research director for sustainability at Uptime Institute, explained: "The pressure is up. You have to be paying attention to this issue at this point. These issues are now at the forefront from a public policy standpoint, and you're going to have to address it during the permitting process."

In the wake of historic droughts, Meta has begun construction on its new Mesa expansion, a development subject to significant controversy since its inception. The facility, which will span 2.5 million square feet, will use millions of gallons of water daily, with Meta informing Mesa officials that water-based cooling was the only 'viable option.'

Elsewhere, Utah is also experiencing severe droughts, with the U.S. Drought Monitor for the state of Utah listing 83% of the state in "extreme drought," with nearly 6% of the state classified as being in "exceptional drought."

That said, there are companies that are more carefully approaching the issue. In Utah, to avoid extreme water consumption, Novva facilities are using alternative methods for data center cooling and contain servers with a mechanical system of air-cooled chilling with no evaporative water system used at all. According to experts, this is the direction more data center and digital infrastructure companies need to move toward.