America’s rapidly expanding data-center industry requires more than enormous amounts of electricity. According to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report, U.S. data centers directly consumed approximately 66 billion liters, or 17.4 billion gallons, of water in 2023, primarily associated with cooling operations.
That represents a dramatic increase from roughly 5.6 billion gallons in 2014. Servers generate substantial heat while operating around the clock, and facilities using cooling towers can consume water through evaporation to remove that heat. However, water consumption varies enormously depending on a facility’s size, climate and cooling technology.
The impact can be particularly significant where many facilities are concentrated together. Northern Virginia has become one of the world’s largest data-center regions, and Loudoun County’s facilities reportedly used roughly 900 million gallons in 2023. At the extreme end, some large hyperscale facilities can consume as much as several million gallons per day.
Not every data center relies heavily on drinking-quality water. Operators can use reclaimed wastewater, air cooling and closed-loop systems to reduce freshwater demand, and consumption varies substantially between facilities. Still, with computing and AI infrastructure continuing to expand, researchers and communities are increasingly examining how future data centers will balance their need for water with local residential, agricultural and environmental demands.
Për foton e Part of life, do ta bëja edhe më të fortë se referenca: server room në njërën anë + cooling infrastructure/ujë në anën tjetër, me headline “U.S. DATA CENTERS USED 17.4 BILLION GALLONS OF WATER IN 2023”. Kështu headline është edhe viral, edhe faktikisht më i sigurt.
