AI is hot, capturing headlines, investment and users. It also moves warm, literally: Artificial Intelligence (AI) model operating data centers use large amounts of electricity and generate heavy heat. To keep the server from overheating, many features depend on the cooling systems using water.
The use of AI data center water comes in two forms. Beyond the water cooling water, data centers indirectly contribute to the use of water through power generation required to provide electricity to their operations. He makes indirect use frequently 80 percent or more Use of overall water.
Reducing the footprint of AI water means dealing with two very different issues – what happens inside the walls of the data center, and what is ahead of them on the power grid.
Use of direct water: local and sometimes stressful
The way the human body cools itself by sweating, data centers are often cooled by evaporation of water – a process that dissolves heat and is lost in the atmosphere in the water, and thus is counted as “consumption”. In many cases, water is drawn from the same municipal systems that supply homes and businesses.
While most of the major technical companies now reveal their direct water use, Not all data centers follow suitsTo obscure the overall picture. In recent reports, companies have speculated that beach 45 percent And 60 percent The withdrawal of water is consumed.
According to a recent report by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2023 direct water consumption by data centers in the United States – about the house 40 percent of the world’s data centers– It is estimated on About 17.5 billion gallonsAssuming a 50 percent consumption ratio, this means 35 billion gallons of water drainage, or about 0.3 percent Total public water supply to the United States. The same report states that the US data center can double or quadruple 2023 levels by 2028 by direct water consumption.
At the national level, the use of data center water is relatively modest. But in some areas where data centers are centered – and especially in areas facing reduction – stress on local water systems can be important. Bloomberg News Reports that about two-thirds of US data centers built since 2022 Are in high water-stake areas,
In Newton County, Georgia, some proposed data centers have allegedly requested more water per day Uses full county Daily. Officials there now face difficult options: reject new projects, require alternative water-skilled cooling systems, invest in expensive infrastructure upgrade, or risk water rationing on residents.
The greatest stress may not be total use, but time. In hot days when residents and businesses require the most water, data centers are also a demand for water. In Arizona, a data center may be used by monthly water during summer Its average level is almost doubled,
Use of indirect water: thirsty electricity
The second part of the equation is electricity that strengthens data centers. In many places, power-throne data centers are generated by fuel-based power plants to train the AI model in the centers or to turn on a lightbull in a house, which require their own cold water. US Electric Power Sector About 11.6 Gallon withdraws water And 1.2 consumes gallons For every kilowatt-hour of electricity, placed in the middle Country’s largest water userWater used to produce electricity that data centers are considered to be the use of powerful water.
The water used by power plants is usually not potable and is not extracted from the municipal water systems. Nevertheless, it can stress on rivers, aquifers and ecosystems-especially in water field areas.
For most US data centers, this indirect use is much higher than direct onsite water use. A paper estimated that in 2023, using GPT-3 to generate a single text output of 150 to 300 words Total 16.9 ml consumed 2.2 mL for water-on-website cooling in an average US data center and 14.7 mL for power generation. It is likely that efficiency gains in later models have reduced these numbers, but the use of indirect water is still strong.
How to reduce the effects of water of data centers
Unlike electricity, data center cooling systems are a design option. The evaporational cooling is low cost and efficient, but it can put a burden on the local supply during summer heat, when water is most essential and at least available. To manage the demand for that summit, data centers can manufacture water storage or establish thermal energy storage. Upgrade the infrastructure of water – such as expanding distribution or fixing the leaks – can help the local systems better demand spikes better.
The option of evaporatorial cooling involves air-based and liquid-remuneration cooling, recycling water using water to cut the use of potable water, and wasted heat is reused to reduce the demand for cooling. Some advanced designs recycle cold water in a closed loop, so no water is eaten; These “zero-water” designs eliminate the need to tap in local drinking water supply. However, many of these designs increase the demand for electricity, which in turn can increase the use of indirect water. Water-cooled data center Eat about 10 percent less energy Compared to air-cooled data centers.
In immersion cooling systems, servers are submerged in a fluid that takes away the heat without evaporating water. Jason Aldon/Bloomberg/Getty Images
In water-stun areas, priority to reduce direct use must be reduced, to reduce direct use, while investing to add renewable to the local grid to reduce the use of indirect water and reduce carbon emissions from high power demand. In wet areas with carbon-intensive grids, priority should be given to reduce power use to reduce total water consumption, even though it means that its high onsite continues to use evaporative cooling with water consumption.
The reality of the Intervmed Water and Electricity System forces data center operators to navigate hard trade-bands between global climatic goals and local water needs. These options are often not simple, but they can be unavoidable until renewable power grids dominate the grid.
The ideas expressed in this article are of writers and not necessarily the ideas of their employers or allied institutions.
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