Each day, billions of Google searches and billions of hours of YouTube streaming result in the requirement for billions of liters of water to cool Google’s data facilities. But until the firm drastically changed its position in the latter part of last year, Google, like other prominent tech corporations, had kept those water usage estimates for specific data centres a closely-guarded secret.
One thing is clear from Google’s recently released environmental report for 2023: The company’s water use is on the rise.
The internet behemoth claimed to have used 37 golf courses’ worth of water in 2022, or 5.6 billion gallons. The company’s data centres utilised the majority of that, or 5.2 billion gallons, a 20% increase over what Google recorded the year previous.
Currently, the bulk of the water used by Google is “potable,” or fit for human consumption.
Google stated in its most recent report that it takes “local water stress” (another term for shortage) into account and that 82% of its freshwater withdrawals in 2022 were from areas with minimal water stress.
It claims to be “exploring new partnerships and opportunities” to restore the health of the remaining 18% of watersheds, but it warns that as more regions experience water shortages, opposition may grow.
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It’s not widely understood how much water each data centre uses. Call it an operational secret, or perhaps it’s something the municipal water system that supplies the data centre would prefer not to be made public, especially given that the data centre is situated in a dry region where water resources face fierce competition from users in the agricultural, residential, and even industrial sectors, such as operators of power plants. It is important to be in front of a conflict for water in these times of diminishing water supplies.
Other than Google, there are many thirsty things. In 2022, Meta—which is also constructing a data centre in Arizona—used more than 2.6 million cubic metres of water, or 697 million gallons. Llama 2, its most recent huge language model, required a lot of water to train.
It’s a major deal for Google data centres to disclose their water usage, and it’s a start in the right direction towards learning how to use less water. Google asserts that their entire yearly water use is comparable to the water used by 29 golf courses in the Southwest US, a region of the nation that has been experiencing a decades-long mega-drought, to put the figure in perspective. At least at some locations, Google has committed to give yearly water consumption statistics in the future (note that they supplied the data after a media outlet in The Dalles, Oregon, battled the city to get the information).
