Data Centres Are Causing Droughts

[Snooky]

I find it hard to believe data centres are causing droughts. Yes, they need a lot of water for cooling. But once things are cool the water is still water and still in some kind of container, or is it all evaporated off into the atmosphere? And even if it was, that would be great for transporting the water over the land and bringing rain. That is what trees do, abosorb rain, then release it back into the air and make rain. If there were no forests the furthest in land it would ever rain would be 50 miles. So, yeah...

From CoPilot:

💧 Why Data Centres Use So Much Water

Most data centres, especially those powering AI and cloud services, rely on evaporative cooling systems to prevent servers from overheating. This method uses water to absorb heat, which is then evaporated—meaning the water is consumed, not recycled

• A 100-megawatt data centre can use up to 2 million liters of water per day, equivalent to the daily use of around 6,500 households
• In Texas, data centres are projected to use 49 billion gallons of water in 2025, with estimates reaching 399 billion gallons annually by 2030

---

🌍 Why This Causes Drought Concerns

1. Location Choices: Many new data centres are being built in drought-prone regions like Texas, Arizona, and parts of Spain, India, and the Middle East. These areas already struggle with water scarcity
2. Evaporation Loss: About 80% of the water used in cooling is lost to evaporation, meaning it doesn’t return to the local water cycle.
3. Competing Needs: In places like Spain, water used by data centres could otherwise support agriculture or local communities. Farmers and residents are increasingly protesting these developments
4. Lack of Regulation: Unlike electricity, water use by data centres is largely unregulated in many regions. For example, Texas has no laws limiting water usage by data centres

HTH

[willendure]

But a forest also has evaporative loss of 80%. The water still exists, it goes into the atmosphere and then turns into rain again. So I don't think this is what is "causing droughts".

[WTFH]

But a forest also has evaporative loss of 80%. The water still exists, it goes into the atmosphere and then turns into rain again. So I don't think this is what is "causing droughts".

If it is taking water out of the water supply that would be used for homes & agriculture, then it's causing reservoirs to drop. While it's true that the water isn't lost, the fun fact is that rain doesn't automatically fall where the water went into the sky. It gets moved to other places.

[Protagoras]

Drought => not enough water supply where it's wanted for human activity.

So that drought is a natural consequence of too many humans wanting to undertake economic activity in inappropriate locations.

Sustainably, we need fewer humans. And those humans need to be living where there are adequate resources.

As for data centres, they should be located where the waste heat can be used e.g. for district heating.

[willendure]

Drought => not enough water supply where it's wanted for human activity.

So that drought is a natural consequence of too many humans wanting to undertake economic activity in inappropriate locations.

Debatable. Wikipedia defines drought as "A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions" and other sources as "a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water". Increase in drought is linked to climate change.

So I think it would be more accurate to claim that data centres are intensifying economic competition for water resources rather than causing droughts.

[woody1]

As for data centres, they should be located where the waste heat can be used e.g. for district heating.

Many people probably don't realise that virtually every kWh of electricity they consume ends up as waste heat. Surely there's got to be a better answer than just dumping this in the atmosphere, and using huge quantities of water in the process. Same applies to Bitcoin miners.

[willendure]

...using huge quantities of water in the process...

*ahem* driving the water cycle, you mean.

I think the direct heating is way less significant than the indirect heating from the greenhouse effect driven by the CO2 and methane output.

[WTFH]

Debatable. Wikipedia defines drought as "A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions" and other sources as "a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water". Increase in drought is linked to climate change.

So I think it would be more accurate to claim that data centres are intensifying economic competition for water resources rather than causing droughts.

You refer to "economic competition", you mean that if people don't have drinking water, that's just an economic issue. You seem to think that the water cycle is tied to specific locations, it is not. This has been explained already, but you've not understood that.

[woody1]

*ahem* driving the water cycle, you mean.

True but not much use in the short term if reservoirs are empty. It's not as though you can control where the evaporated water lands back on the ground.

I think the direct heating is way less significant than the indirect heating from the greenhouse effect driven by the CO2 and methane output.

It was the consumed electricity I was driving at. At least if the heat was utilised in some way, it wouldn't be such a waste. Of course, it wouldn't matter if all electricity was generated by renewables but currently it's not. Burning gas to generate electricity to produce and waste heat isn't very smart.

[woody1]

Perhaps they should be "encouraged" to turn that waste heat back into electricity.

It can be done, although I don't think it's that efficient, and I don't know how much water it would save. Still, it would be better than it totally going to waste.