Water Usage of Data Centers
- Russell Withers
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Contextualizing the water usage of data centers reveals their usage to be comparable to many other industries.
Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs
The Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute takes great interest in the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs’ charge on “the water demands of energy-intensive technologies,” which includes data centers. Data centers present a major economic opportunity for Texas, and one that the state should take advantage of. Like any new or growing industry, however, it is not without its challenges. Siting, energy consumption, and, of course, water usage prompt a public policy debate that this committee is right to have. Lawmakers and industry interests alike should welcome that opportunity.
The conversation around data center water usage has been widely distorted before it is generally understood, and it is far more nuanced than the loudest voices in the room would have their listeners believe. There is also evidence that China and other hostile foreign interests are influencing American discourse on data centers in order to gain advantage in the race to develop artificial intelligence (AI).
As an initial matter, claims of excessive water usage by data centers ignore relativity. While it is true that some data centers can consume millions of gallons of water a day, that statistic means little in a vacuum.
The most recent reliable data suggests that national data center water consumption is currently in the neighborhood of 17.4 billion gallons per year. Without context, that appears to be an alarming number, but when looking at water consumption of other commonplace products, industries, and practices, it looks relatively commonplace. For example, American swimming pools consume roughly 200 billion gallons of water per year. California avocado orchards alone consume roughly 245 billion gallons of water per year. And, of course, one of America’s favorite pastimes, golf, consumes roughly 476 billion gallons of water per year.
In other words, total annual water usage by all data centers in the United States of America amounts to roughly 3.5% of the water used to keep American golf courses green each year.
Golf course water use pales in comparison to 3.3 trillion gallons of water Americans use each year for watering plants and gardens. Total water use by all data centers in America amounts to roughly half of a percent of that number.
