Datacenter Water FootPrint

US DataCenters Water FootPrint uses 1.8 liters of water for every kWh it consumes 

Like energy, growth in data center water consumption in the US has slowed down since about a decade ago. A recent US government study for the first time made an attempt to quantify water consumption of all data centers in the country. The study focuses primarily on data center energy consumption, but it also uses its electricity consumption estimates to extrapolate the amount of water it takes to power and cool data centers.

Generation of electricity is a major water consumer, and data centers use a lot of electricity. In 2014, data centers were responsible for 2 percent of all electricity consumed in the US, according to the recent government study.

In 2010, the second-largest portion of daily water withdrawals in California (about 17 percent) went to thermoelectric power generation, according to USGS. While data centers consume relatively little water directly – compared to farming or other industries – the water it takes to generate electricity to power them has to be taken into account as well.

The study, whose results were published in a report in June, was conducted by the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in collaboration with researchers from Stanford University, Northwestern University, and Carnegie Mellon University.

As the report points out, far more water is used to generate electricity that powers data centers than to cool them. It takes about 7.6 liters of water on average to generate 1kWh of energy in the US, while an average data center uses 1.8 liters of water for every kWh it consumes, according to the researchers.

Combined, US data centers were responsible for the consumption of 626 billion liters of water in 2014, which includes both water consumed directly at data center sites and water used to generate the electricity that powered them that year. The researchers expect this number to reach 660 billion liters in 2020:

The government’s estimates rely on averages because water consumption per 1kWh at different data center sites varies greatly, depending on the climate and the type of cooling system used, and so does water consumption associated with energy generation. Different generation sources use different amounts of water, and some power plants are more efficient than others.

The estimates take into account water losses at thermoelectric and hydroelectric plants, as well as losses at data center cooling towers due to drift and blowdown. They also assume that IT closets and IT rooms don’t consume water, being cooled by direct-expansion, or air-cooled chillers.

Just like with energy, data center water consumption has been growing at a slower rate than it did before 2007.

Source: Data Center Knowledge

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Taxonomy

• Water
• Energy
• Consumption
• Energy
• Hydroelectric Energy