Google Commits to 'Climate-Conscious' Data Centers
As lakes and rivers dry up, cloud hyperscalers aim to become 'water positive.'
We now know that Google consumed 4.3 billion gallons of water to cool its worldwide data centers in 2021. That’s a lot of water—and that number will likely go up as Google’s global data center footprint continues to expand.
Fortunately, Google has a plan to reverse this worrisome trend.
Data centers use a variety of cooling techniques: air conditioning; circulation of outside air; liquid-cooled hardware; underground geothermal cooling; and even underwater on the ocean floor. Yet, evaporative cooling using locally sourced water is one of the most common practices.
What does it mean to say that data centers “consume” water? In simple terms, the total water withdrawn from rivers and other sources, minus the water returned after processing, equals consumption. Much of the consumed water evaporates in the form of plumes into the air, as you can see in the picture above, which I took myself.
A few weeks ago, Google publicly revealed data about the water consumption of its data centers for the first time. In 2021, Google withdrew 5.5 billion gallons of water and discharged 1.2 billion gallons—resulting in net consumption of 4.3 billion gallons.
Google’s disclosure comes amid heightened scrutiny and concern over the environmental issues of climate change, drought, and “water-stressed” environments. We’ve all seen the startling images of the receding shorelines of Lake Mead, Nevada, and other reservoirs, lakes, and rivers.
For background, see Bloomberg’s article, “Google Data Centers’ Secret Cost: Billions of Gallons of Water.”
And from GCN, “We Are Ignoring the True Cost of Water-Guzzling Data Centers.”
In pursuit of becoming ‘water positive’
Google first outlined its commitment to water stewardship in 2021. Last month, Urs Holzle, SVP of technical infrastructure, provided an update on the company’s “responsible water use” strategy, along with first-time metrics on 15 U.S data centers.
See Holzle’s blog post: “Our Commitment to Climate-Conscious Data Center Cooling.”
And the detailed report (PDF): Google’s 2021 Annual Water Metrics.
Of course, Google isn’t the only big cloud vendor with water-thirsty data centers. CNBC reports that Microsoft, Meta, and others face a growing drought risk to their data centers. In response, some data center operators are moving to “zero consumption”—or even “water positive”—strategies.
Google’s long-term goal is to be water positive, which is to say that it aims to replenish all of the water it consumes and more. Amazon and Microsoft have similar objectives.
Google’s ambitious goal is to replenish 120% of the water it consumes by 2030. It will do that in three ways: water conservation in its offices and data centers; improving watersheds and ecosystems; and developing tools to predict, prevent, and recover from water stress.
While much of the water that Google consumes is fresh water, like that from the Columbia River, it also uses alternative sources such as municipal wastewater, industrial water, and seawater.
And there are other innovations in the works. “We are currently developing new cooling solutions,” writes Holzle, “including a new low-water alternative that can reduce a data center's water use by as much as 50% while preserving our world-class energy efficiency.”
My trip to the Columbia River
I’ve seen this up close. One of Google’s primary data centers is located along the Columbia River in the Dalles, Oregon. That data center was built in 2005, and I visited the site (though I did not go inside) a few years later. I drove by a second time just a few weeks ago.
The following video created by Google provides a tour of the Dalles’ data center, including the cooling systems and towers. This video is a few years old, so the technology may not be state of the art compared to its newest facilities.
Video credit: Google
On my trip to the Columbia River Gorge back in 2009, I drove a borrowed pickup truck to an Amazon data center that was under construction 80 miles to the east in Boardman, Oregon. I had to do a little investigative work and drive around a road barrier to find the data center site. Here’s the exclusive “first look” article I wrote on Amazon’s data center at the time. (Sorry, the image gallery no longer seems to be available.)
So, I’m well aware that the Columbia River has become a sought-after location for large-scale data centers. In fact, Google reportedly plans to continue expanding in the Dalles, Oregon.
Google emphasizes that water cooling reduces the carbon emissions associated with air-cooled data centers by about 10%. That’s a net positive in terms of sustainability. But it doesn’t diminish the fact that data centers are still consuming billions of gallons of water at a time of dwindling resources.
Data management requires water management
The issue and challenges of water cooling are certain to grow for the foreseeable future as digital technologies and exabytes of data drive the need for additional data center capacity.
Synergy Research Group counted nearly 600 large data centers around the world in 2021. The firm now predicts the number of data centers will surpass 1,000 by 2025.
The bottom line is that data management increasingly requires attention to water management. In a world where sustainability has become an urgent and shared responsibility, it behooves all of us to be aware of the impact of cloud consumption and think about how we can help.
Further reading
“Sip or Guzzle? Here’s How Google’s Data Centers Use Water,” GreenBiz
“Google’s Water Use Is Soaring in The Dalles, with Two More Data Centers to Come,” OregonLive/The Oregonian