According to Google’s annual environmental report, which was released on Monday, the company is still on track to meet its commitment to using renewable energy sources while also giving back more water to the communities than it takes out to supply its offices and cool its data centers.
The 104-page report states that the company matched 100% of its annual global electricity consumption with renewable energy purchases for the sixth consecutive year.
Ben Gomes, senior vice president for learning and sustainability, and Kate Brandt, chief sustainability officer, wrote in a Google blog, “We are now working to address the issue that renewable energy is not always and everywhere available. We aim to run on carbon-free energy 24/7 and to achieve net-zero emissions across all of our operations and value chain by 2030.”.
In order to support its goal of replenishing 120 percent of the freshwater it uses in its global operations by 2030, the report also stated that the company had replenished 271 million gallons of water through its contracted watershed projects, which is equivalent to more than 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
However, since that 271 million gallons represents only 6% of Google’s anticipated freshwater consumption in 2022, the company will have to work hard to meet that goal.
Data Centers in Need of Water
The majority of the water used by Google goes toward cooling its vast server network. According to the report, the company receives two advantages from water cooling. It stated, “We’ve found that compared to our air-cooled data centers, our water-cooled data centers use about 10% less energy and produce roughly 10% fewer carbon emissions.
According to Google, its data centers and offices used 5.6 billion gallons of water in total in 2022, which is the same amount needed to irrigate 37 golf courses each year on average in the southwestern United States. Google was careful to point out that it makes an effort to use alternatives to freshwater and non-potable sources of freshwater whenever practical.
It also stated that when choosing where to locate its facilities, how to design them, and how to operate them — from water systems in its offices to cooling systems in its data centers — it also evaluates and takes into account local water stress.
Thus, in 2022, 82 percent of our freshwater withdrawals originated from regions with low water stress, according to the report’s findings.
The location of Amazon Web Services’ data centers also takes water stress levels into account. Will Hewes, the AWS Global Lead for Water, said that in some locations, the community might lead to the decision that using water to cool data centers is not the proper course of action.
There are other options. They simply demand more energy from us, he told TechNewsWorld.
Replacements for Cooling
Wes Swenson, founder, investor, and CEO of West Jordan, Utah-based Novva Data Centers, a privately held data center company, explained that if water is a limited resource in a given area and data centers move in and use water for evaporative chilling, this can put pressure on the water supply.
But, he continued, scarcity is only one issue. “The water is treated for minerals or hard water, and for bacteria treatment, as it will be inhaled by employees,” he said to TechNewsWorld, “if the data center uses air-side economizers and the outside ambient air is entering the data center.”.
The remainder of the water, he continued, “is flushed into the city’s wastewater system, where it must either be retreated or shifted to irrigation uses. To clean it and reclean it, a lot of energy is required. “.
If the water is utilized for fluid side economizers, the hard water minerals are removed and outside air is kept out of the data center. The water that did not evaporate, however, is once more flushed into the city’s wastewater system, which puts more strain on the wastewater treatment facilities, the author continued.
Data centers can use air cooling as a substitute for their primary cooling method of using water, according to Adam Simmons, a content provider for Data Center Knowledge, an online informational resource on the data center industry.
He told TechNewsWorld that the reason air is ineffective at cooling things down is because water is. “Air also doesn’t work in hot environments, so it won’t function as well in Arizona and Texas as it might in Canada or Northern Europe. “.
“There’s also liquid immersion cooling,” he continued, “where the equipment is submerged in a non-conducting liquid.That presents difficulties as well. It’s fresher. Due to the inability to upgrade the equipment while it is submerged, it is more expensive and has maintenance problems. “.
Data Center Water Demand and AI Impact
Water-free systems have been around for a while, according to Simmons. The claim that their systems require more energy to operate than water systems is false, he said.
Additionally, he suggested that data center clients exercise better cooling judgment. For example, turning up the thermostat from 70 to 80 degrees would be beneficial. “.
If Google’s and everyone else’s data centers are already parched, the demand for running artificial intelligence models may make them even more parched. Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst at the Enderle Group, an advisory services company in Bend, Oregon, predicted that AI would significantly increase the demand for water by data centers.
AI is very computationally intensive. He explained to TechNewsWorld that processing power produces heat and requires additional cooling.
Without a change in data center practices, Swenson claimed, AI models will probably have an impact on water.Building of data centers will probably increase at a rate ten times current levels, if not more, due to AI and new inferred compute loads with a multiplier effect.as twenty to twenty-five times, over just the next five years,” he predicted.
Efficiency in Demand Balance
Hewes acknowledged that there might be a gradual increase in water use brought on by AI. However, he added, “AWS will keep making investments in water efficiency so we can reduce any growth in water.
He mentioned that in 2021, AWS data centers used approximately 0.25 liters of water per kilowatt hour. It decreased that to 0.19 liters per kilowatt-hour in 2022.
He said, “Our intention is to have a net positive impact, even with water growth.”.
John DeVoe is a senior fundraiser and advisor for WaterWatch of Oregon, a Portland, Oregon-based organization that monitors water quality. , a spokesperson for, advised that promises made by corporations regarding water use should be carefully examined.
He enquired as to what they meant by replenish
He told TechNewsWorld that in Oregon, “Amazon had a program where they were putting water they had been using for cooling and putting it into irrigation canals and calling that mitigation.”. But that has no effect on the rivers, streams, or aquifers that provide the water. “.
Water doesn’t return to those sources, he continued, and even if it did, it would kill the fish that inhabit them. “.
The water quality in the reuse system at its irrigation project in Oregon must be maintained, AWS stated in a blog. Water quality sensors have been installed by the business to record information for analysis and automated alarming.
These Internet of Things services, according to the company, give AWS and the nearby communities the assurance that the water quality is always suitable for irrigation. “The Umatilla and Morrow counties’ farmers and residents now have access to millions of gallons of water annually for the first time thanks to the water reuse system. “.