Professional
Reports
It has been difficult to obtain detailed information on AI data center water use and consumption. Partly because data center operators have not regularly collected the data, and partly because those who do use NDA’s and the threat of lawsuits to zealously shield the information from public examination. Yearly environmental reports tend to focus on mitigations and strategies, and don’t include actual data on withdrawals or consumption.
Google is the exception. They include facility-level data in the data tables on pages 110 and 111. We analyzed the data in their 2025 Environmental Report and produced a report of our insights. Click the Contact Us button below for access to a download of the report.
Atlanta Data Center Water Study
AllAI Consulting partnered with DataedX Group to produce a report that analyzes the impact of AI data centers on Georgia’s water infrastructure. The full professional report is available on the DataedX website. You can review or download the academic paper at the link below.
Publications
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I’ve been writing about AI data center-driven water scarcity for some time. The most common response to my work is - “water is never lost to the earth.” Which is True. But we don’t live on the earth. We live in communities. So while the earth may have enough water to support all of humanity, your community may not have enough water to support the people living in it…
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In a closed loop system, cold liquid is circulated past the server, the server heats it, the heated water is circulated through a heat exchanger where it is cooled, then the cold water is circulated past the server again. That loop is closed. No liquids gained, no liquids lost. But that isn’t the only loop. The key component of the closed loop system is the second loop, the heat exchanger loop. That loop is open…
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Turns out the little meter on the side of your house or apartment building is much cheaper to buy, install, and maintain than the kind required to meter the amount of water a data center goes through. And since data center operators aren’t required to track their water usage, most of them don’t. Water’s cheaper than electricity so, who cares if they use a couple dozen million more gallons than they thought they would, right? It’s not like they’ll be fined or anything so… the math adds up…
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. The 99 megawatt (MW), Great Oaks South data center that is being built in San Jose’s Santa Teresa neighborhood will utilize thirty-nine diesel generators for backup power. As critical infrastructure, the backup generators need to be actively maintained, which means running them for several hours every month. While California allows these generators to be run for 50 hours a year for maintenance purposes, Great Oaks South said they will likely only run theirs for 20 hours a year. According to the California Energy Commission, running the 99MW backup system for 20 hours would emit as much pollution as 428 gas-powered cars driven for a year…
Originally featured in Silicon Valley Business Journal