With a substantial increase in wildfires in Europe this year, amid record droughts and extreme heat, the availability of water for data centre cooling is emerging as a critical challenge for the region.
While industry debates have largely focused on soaring energy demands, water scarcity now poses an equally urgent risk to the sustainability and resilience of rapidly expanding digital infrastructure, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Robert Pritchard, Principal Analyst, Enterprise Technology & Services at GlobalData, comments: “Climate change has produced weather patterns from wildfires to flash floods that are becoming more extreme worldwide.
Superheated ground results in less rain getting absorbed into aquifers and instead running over dry soil, often destroying lives and livelihoods. Climate change also means that the requirement for water to cool the ever-expanding base of data centres is likely to become an issue that needs addressing.”
Infrastructure demands caused by data centre growth have tended to focus on burgeoning energy requirements, with companies looking to use new nuclear technology, among other solutions, to meet their needs. Some countries and cities around the world, for example Singapore and Dublin, Ireland, have paused or prevented new data centre construction to protect the provision of energy to their citizens over often overburdened infrastructure.
Pritchard adds: “Data centre providers are using technology innovations to try to address the energy demands of their growth, particularly given the explosion of artificial intelligence (AI).”
Despite the efforts to find alternatives to water cooling and attempts to reduce the overall usage, the fact remains that water plays a huge role. The OECD estimates that by 2027 AI tools will require 4.2-6.6 billion cubic meters of water per year—more than the entire annual use for a country like Denmark, or nearly half of that of the UK.
Pritchard explains: “As with most things in tech, solutions will be found for the emerging challenges. The problem, however, is that any solutions must be set within the context of climate change and the immediate impact it is having on citizens’ lives. It is a political issue and a social issue, not just a technology issue.”
There are other points to note when comparing the issue of energy infrastructure and usage.
Pritchard concludes: “There is no water equivalent of carbon credits to hide behind – obfuscation tactics that have often saved blushes amongst greenwashers. More importantly, where energy can have on-site backup generators for grid failures, there is no equivalent (despite data lakes) for water. On top of that is the potential threat of terrorist attacks on critical water infrastructure, which looks like far more of an important issue.”