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What occupies hundreds of thousands of square feet, is full of servers, and thirstier than a sodaless, popcorn-eating moviegoer? A data center.
But, but, but: On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that it’d reduce the amount of water its data centers use by 95% by 2024, and net produce water by the end of the decade.
Data centers power computationally intensive but ubiquitous tech, like AI, machine learning, and cloud computing. They also regularly use massive amounts of water to cool their servers, via a process called “evaporative cooling,” which typically kicks in when outside temperatures top 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The typical data center uses 3–5 million gallons of water per day, equivalent to a city of 30k–50k people, NBC News reports.
- And as more and more companies cloudify their operations, server warehouses are only growing more common: Microsoft alone will build 50–100 new data centers a year, The Verge reports.
Microsoft’s water-reduction strategy is twofold, per The Verge: For one, after running tests on its systems, the company will set higher limits for when evaporative cooling kicks in. And in super-hot environments, like the desert regions many data centers are built in, it plans to use immersion cooling, a less water-intensive process that cools servers by dunking them in a specialized liquid bath.
Zoom out: Google has also said it wants to net produce water by 2030, specifically 120% of what it consumes. Amazon notes that it has “optimized these cooling systems to minimize water usage,” but has no specific commitments listed.
- Amazon and Google didn’t respond to requests for comment as to whether they’ll commit to similarly aggressive water goals by 2024.
- Together, the three companies account for the majority of “hyperscale” data centers in the US.