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Shaolei Ren, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California says solutions such as using seawater are easier said than done because the liquid used to cool these data centres must also be purified.
“If the water isn’t clean, it will contain bacteria that’s bad for the environment,” he says. “Saltwater also corrodes cooling pipes.”
BofA recently warned that the world could run out of freshwater by 2040, leaving a third of global GDP exposed to negative shocks from water scarcity and a potential 6pc decline amid increases in health risks, migration and inequality.
While economists argue that technology is ultimately the solution, not the problem, tensions are increasingly starting to arise when companies clash with local communities seeking to preserve water because of droughts.
Research by ING showed that in 2022, 23pc of Microsoft’s and 18pc of Google’s freshwater withdrawals originated in areas of water stress, where demand exceeds the available amount over a period.
In the US, which hosts about 25pc of all global data centres, a mid-sized data centre uses about 300,000 gallons (1.3 million litres) of water every day, which ING says is equal to the water consumption of 100,000 homes.
Coco Zhang, an economist at ING, said: “This means that to continue using water to cool data centres, companies need to enhance water usage efficiency and minimise the risk from droughts. They must also properly manage relationships with the local community for large amounts of water consumption.”
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