Read previous posts in this series: Part I: Web Searches and the Data Center and Part II: Powering a Data Center.
Part III: Cooling Thirsty Data Centers
In the second part of the series, I talked about the energy/electricity needed to power a data center. In Indiana, approximately 85% of electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels, which means that data produced at data centers in Indiana naturally relies on the burning of fossil fuels. In this post, I will research water usage at data centers, because electricity use is only half the story.
I had heard that data centers require "massive" amounts of water, and as in electricity discussed in Part II, water is used in MULTIPLE phases of data production: pre-build, construction, and operation. First, the pre-build sees water used in the production of the computers, chips, and cables themselves, as well as the building infrastructure such as concrete and steel, all highly water-intensive manufacturing processes. Next, the center must be built, requiring less water immediately on site as construction generally occurs with large vehicles run by fossil fuels, but of course water is needed to produce the massive amounts of fuel used to construct a facility. This phase also often sees “dewatering” to prepare the building site. Finally, in the operational phase, the most water is used on site to keep computers cool using different methods depending on the technology of the particular facility. Some of the cooling methods range from air conditioning at the smaller Tier 1 centers, to evaporation and heat absorption at the larger hypercenters. In these two cooling methods, water is consumed when it is evaporated, and therefore “lost” to the atmosphere. Other facilities recirculate some water and catch evaporation to prevent loss, but there is no industry standard.
If that were not enough, massive amounts of water are needed in the energy (electricity) generation process, and the actual amount needed differs by energy source. In both natural gas and coal-burning power plants, gas or coal is burned to boil water to make steam, which then turns a turbine to generate electricity, and coal burning (approx. 46% of electricity production in Indiana) requires approx. 6 times more water to generate electricity than natural gas (approx. 39% of electricity production in Indiana) requires. Even renewable electricity production (approx. 15% of electricity production in Indiana) requires water, granted at a much lesser scale than fossil fuel-burning plants. Wind turbines and solar panels also require water in the production, cross-country delivery, and installation processes, so ALL power production involves the use of water.
Although the newest data center in Indiana, the Amazon Rainier Project data center in New Carlisle, claims to be implementing the latest cooling technology, and therefore minimal water, the mindboggling size of the facility disavows the possibility that it could be water-efficient in any sense of the word. When all 30 buildings planned for the 1,200 acre facility open, I will be eager to learn how much water will be needed for daily function, a number which is not offered on its website. That might be because Indiana does not require data centers to measure or report water use as it does electricity. By the way, Pokagon State Park in Angola, Indiana, 90 miles away, is also 1,200 acres, making the Amazon Rainier Project facility as large as one of the most visited State Parks in Indiana. That is hard for me to wrap my head around.
I also did not know the main water sources in Indiana before writing this, and here is what I found. Most water in Indiana comes from rivers, aquifers, or reservoirs. Unlike electricity, water cannot be made, only collected, so there must be a sufficient supply available to collect. Once the water is collected, it must of course be treated before supplied to the consumer, and once again treated after entering the sewer system. The Amazon Rainier Project data center, for example, takes its water from the Kankakee Aquifer. Its website claims that its cooling technology is so advanced that it only needs water for 2 hours a day during summer months, while utilizing outside air to cool the rest of the year. Again, the Rainier Project website does not indicate how much water that ends up being, so it is difficult to quantify, but keep in mind that by the end of 2025, the Rainier Project center will be using 1 million chips in its computers. One million. I really encourage the reader to check out the Rainer Project’s website for yourself. The magnitude of the facility is more than I can comprehend or attempt to summarize here.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management states that Indiana water table levels are lowering slightly in the very north and central areas, perhaps due to over-pulling, but are rising in the rest of the state. One could conclude that this means there is plenty of water for data centers in Indiana, even at the hyperscale level, but there are many entities that challenge this conclusion, such as the Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter and the Citizens Action Coalition, to name only two. It is nonetheless undeniable that no data center can ask a water utility to “make” more water, as they might be able to ask a power utility to ramp up electricity production.
Simply put, I learned that the new hyperscale data centers coming to Indiana require amounts of both electricity and water in the pre-build, construction, and production phases on a scale not seen before in the state, and on a scale that is still challenging for me to visualize.
To research the first three posts of this blog, I of course did not go to the library, which is the only way I would have been able to do research back when I was a student in the 1980s. Times have changed so much since then that the thought of having to go to the library to research for this blog is laughable. By the time my research would be done, the technology would have changed to such an extent that the research would be obsolete. To research this, I did use AI, both willingly and unwittingly. Some information could only be acquired using AI but other could be collected in the traditional search method. How did I know that my search used AI? My search results page starts with “AI Overview’’ with the data summary at the top, and the more traditional list of relevant websites below that on the page.
I didn’t always want to use AI for my search, and my browser shifted to AI mode automatically, which was frustrating. But now I know there are two easy ways to avoid this: change your browser, or use a key word in your search bar if you stay with your current browser. First, consider using a “carbon neutral” browser rather than Chrome (Google), which holds OVER 70% of the world’s share. Just by using Chrome the gentle reader (and myself until yesterday) is supporting one of the largest tech companies in the world, which of course wants you to use AI because it supports their business. The Chrome browser flashes AI-assisted search options to the user, creating an addictive cycle. The more you use AI, the more you support their big tech and hyperscale data centers. It’s like my urge to turn into every roadside cafe advertising “Indiana’s best tenderloin.” Very tempting! There are many browsers that commit to being carbon neutral, however, and promise to avoid AI-assist searches and support environmental initiatives. If you still prefer to stay with your current browser, you can try to avoid doing AI-assisted searches this way: simply type your search in the search bar, followed by “-AI.” For example: “how many data centers are there in Indiana -AI” This should result in a search without the support of AI.
I hope you learned something about AI-assisted internet searches, data centers, power generation and water supply in Indiana, and how all of these are interconnected. This information will hopefully help you understand the immediate impact of the tech you choose to use. Before this blog, it had not occurred to me that by using AI technology, in any form, I was unwittingly supporting an energy- and resource-heavy industry, which undeniably contributes to climate change, however small. Am I willing to support AI tech, knowing that my actions negatively affect climate change? Are you?
In the fourth post in the blog series, I will explore the environmental impact of the rise of data centers in Indiana, and let me tell you, THIS causes me dread. I am genuinely afraid to learn how our state’s environment, and by association our world’s, has already been impacted by the existence of data centers. Please buckle up and join me. Knowledge is power.
Jennifer Ehara
Winding Waters Group Executive Committee
and Hoosier Chapter Sierra Club Communications Team