I responded to a lazy comment with a higher effort comment. I think I left the conversation better than I found it. Not sure which part you'd like sourced, but here's a paper I think does a good job of covering some of these topics
While data center electricity use has been the subject of much investigation, data center water consumption is a less studied topic that is becoming increasingly important in the context of water scarcity and freshwater conservation, especially at local levels. Many data centers can consume a significant amount of water directly for cooling and space conditioning
For example, Google's data centers in The Dalles consumed 355 million gallons of water in 2021, representing 29 % of the city's total water consumption
Additionally, data centers consume water indirectly through the water used for electricity generation. This type of water use can be significant at the local or national level depending on the power generation technologies, power mixes, and electricity usage of the data centers.
Comments
Well, you surely convinced me.
I responded to a lazy comment with a higher effort comment. I think I left the conversation better than I found it. Not sure which part you'd like sourced, but here's a paper I think does a good job of covering some of these topics
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2025.108310
Some highlights: