← Field Notes
Tagged: data-centers
-
Data Center Water Consumption: The Real Numbers and How to Cut Them
U.S. data centers used about 17.4 billion gallons of water for cooling in 2023 — and roughly 228 billion gallons once you count the water behind their electricity. Here's where it goes, how it's measured, and why recovery beats new supply.
-
The AI Water Problem: How Much Water Data Centers Really Use
A single 10 MW data center's cooling system uses roughly 230,000 tons (about 60 million gallons) of water a year — and dumps 20–50% of it. Here's why, and what can be done about it.