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<strong>google</strong>'s Data Centers Use A Mind-Boggling Amount Of Water | Digg
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google's Data Centers Are Using A Staggering Amount Of Water

Darcy Jimenez
Darcy Jimenez
Google's Data Centers Are Using A Staggering Amount Of Water
One of the company's US complexes consumed 980 million gallons — roughly 1,484 Olympic-sized swimming pools' worth — of water in 2023.
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Worldwide, tech behemoth google's data centers use up a mind-boggling six billion gallons of water every year. This is because computer servers generate a lot of heat, and water is used in chiller plants, evaporative cooling systems and humidification to keep the servers' temperatures down.

Using google's own 2024 Environmental Report, Visual Capitalist mapped the company's US data centers that consume the most water. Figures are accurate as of 2023.

google's Council Bluffs, Iowa, data center consumed more water than any other in the country in 2023, at 980 million gallons.

The data center complexes in Mayes County, Oklahoma (815 million gallons), and Berkeley County, South Carolina (763 million gallons), are the second- and third-thirstiest in the US.

The rest of the company's American locations use significantly less water than the top three — but the fourth-ranking spot, Douglas County, Georgia, still guzzled down a considerable 346 million gallons in 2023.

Click image to enlarge

US Google data center water consumption

Via Visual Capitalist.

Comments

  1. Unknown 6 days ago

    Yeah this is incredibly misleading. The VAST majority of the water is returned to the water supply, just slightly warmer. This is like saying the Hoover Dam uses billions of gallons of water.

    1. eternal soul 5 days ago

      Partially agree. Some water evaporates and is lost to the local part of the system*, but water management officials assume something like 85-90% of water "used" is returned to the local system. While evaporation is still an impact, you can mitigate it. That should be the conversation IMO: large water users -- ag, tech, and industrial -- should be required to deploy systems that return the largest portion of water they use to surface or aquifer storage.

      * Warm air can carry more water vapor than cold, which is one reason climate warming can lead to drought, so if we don't require large users to minimize loss from evaporation, there can be higher loss to the local system.

    2. DukeofWulf 5 days ago

      Not sure what your point is. Sure, they aren't splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen atoms? But they're evaporating it, so it has to pass through the water cycle again. What really matters is where they're getting the water. If they're getting it from a surface source (river or sea water) in a region with plenty of it, then it's fine, but they're probably using water fit for human consumption (because filters will last longer that way). If it's from groundwater like an aquifer, those are being rapidly depleted in most areas of the country.

  2. cathy moore 6 days ago

    Is geothermal an option? Is the water being recycled within the facility?

    1. eternal soul 5 days ago

      Geothermal? Why would they use hot water to cool the servers?

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