Critics Slam Amazon’s ‘Water Constructive’ Pledge as Information Facilities Pressure Native Sources

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Earlier this yr, the e-commerce company Amazon secured approval to open two new data centers in Santiago, Chile. The $400 million enterprise is the corporate’s first foray into finding its knowledge amenities, which guzzle huge quantities of electrical energy and water with a view to energy cloud computing companies and on-line applications, in Latin America — and in probably the most water-stressed nations on the earth, the place residents have protested against the industry’s expansion.

This week, the tech large made a separate however associated announcement. It plans to spend money on water conservation alongside the Maipo River, which is the first supply of water for the Santiago area. Amazon will companion with a water expertise startup to assist farmers alongside the river set up drip irrigation programs on 165 acres of farmland. The plan is poised to preserve sufficient water to produce round 300 houses per yr, and it’s a part of Amazon’s marketing campaign to make its cloud computing operations “water optimistic” by 2030, which means the corporate’s internet companies division will preserve or replenish extra water than it makes use of up.

The reasoning behind this water initiative is obvious: Information facilities require giant quantities of water to chill their servers, and Amazon plans to spend $100 billion to construct extra of them over the following decade as a part of a giant wager on its Amazon Net Providers cloud-computing platform. Different tech corporations reminiscent of Microsoft and Meta, that are additionally investing in knowledge facilities to maintain the artificial-intelligence growth, have made similar water pledges amid a rising controversy in regards to the sector’s thirst for water and energy.

Amazon claims that its knowledge facilities are already among the many most water-efficient within the trade, and it plans to roll out extra conservation initiatives to mitigate its thirst. Nonetheless, similar to company pledges to achieve “net-zero” emissions, these water pledges are extra advanced than they appear at first look. Whereas the corporate has certainly taken steps to chop water utilization at its amenities, its calculations don’t account for the huge water wants of the ability crops that maintain the lights on at these exact same amenities. With out a bigger dedication to mitigating Amazon’s underlying stress on electrical energy grids, conservation efforts by the corporate and its fellow tech giants will solely deal with a part of the issue, in response to specialists who spoke to Grist.

The highly effective servers in giant knowledge facilities run scorching as they course of unprecedented quantities of knowledge, and conserving them from overheating requires each water and electrical energy. Moderately than attempt to maintain these rooms cool with conventional air-conditioning models, many corporations use water as a coolant, operating it previous the servers to relax them out. The facilities additionally want large quantities of electrical energy to run all their servers: They already account for round 3 p.c of U.S. energy demand, a quantity that would more than double by 2030. On prime of that, the coal, gasoline, and nuclear energy crops that produce that electrical energy themselves devour even bigger portions of water to remain cool.

Will Hewes, who leads water sustainability for Amazon Net Providers, instructed Grist that the corporate makes use of water in its knowledge facilities with a view to save on energy-intensive air con models, thus lowering its reliance on fossil fuels.

“Utilizing water for cooling in most locations actually reduces the quantity of power that we use, and so it helps us meet different sustainability targets,” he mentioned. “We may all the time determine to not use water for cooling, however we wish to, rather a lot, due to these power and effectivity advantages.”

With the intention to save on power prices, the corporate’s knowledge facilities should evaporate hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per yr. It’s laborious to say for positive how a lot water the information middle trade consumes, however the ballpark estimates are substantial. One 2021 examine found that U.S. knowledge facilities consumed round 415,000 acre-feet of water in 2018, even earlier than the artificial-intelligence growth. That’s sufficient to produce round 1,000,000 common houses yearly, or about as a lot as California’s Imperial Valley takes from the Colorado River every year to develop winter greens. One other examine discovered that knowledge facilities operated by Microsoft, Google, and Meta withdrew twice as a lot water from rivers and aquifers as the complete nation of Denmark.

It’s nearly sure that this quantity has ballooned even increased in recent times as corporations have constructed extra facilities to maintain up with the artificial-intelligence growth, since AI applications reminiscent of ChatGPT require huge quantities of server actual property. Tech corporations have constructed a whole lot of latest knowledge facilities in the previous couple of years alone, and they’re planning a whole lot extra. One latest estimate discovered that ChatGPT requires an average-sized bottle of water for each 10 to 50 chat responses it gives. The on-site water consumption at any one in all these corporations’ knowledge facilities may now rival that of a major beverage company reminiscent of PepsiCo.

Amazon doesn’t present statistics on its absolute water consumption; Hewes instructed Grist the corporate is “centered on effectivity.” Nonetheless, the tech large’s water utilization is probably going decrease than a few of its rivals — partly as a result of the corporate has constructed most of its knowledge facilities with so-called evaporative cooling programs, which require far much less water than different cooling applied sciences and solely activate when temperatures get too excessive. The corporate pegs its water utilization at round 10 p.c of the trade common, and in temperate areas reminiscent of Sweden, it doesn’t use any water to chill down knowledge facilities besides throughout peak summer season temperatures.

Firms can cut back the environmental impression of their AI enterprise by constructing them in temperate areas which have loads of water, however they need to steadiness these effectivity considerations with considerations about land and electrical energy prices, in addition to the should be near main prospects. Latest research have discovered that data center water consumption in the U.S. is “skewed towards water burdened subbasins” in locations just like the Southwest, however Amazon has clustered much of its business farther east, particularly in Virginia, which boasts cheap power and monetary incentives for tech companies.

“Loads of the areas are pushed by buyer wants, but in addition by [prices for] actual property and energy,” mentioned Hewes. “Some massive parts of our knowledge middle footprint are in locations that aren’t tremendous scorching, that aren’t in tremendous water burdened areas. Virginia, Ohio — they get scorching in the summertime, however then there are massive chunks of the yr the place we don’t want to make use of water for cooling.”  Even so, the corporate’s growth in Virginia is already inflicting considerations over water availability.

To mitigate its impacts in such basins, the corporate additionally funds dozens of conservation and recharge initiatives just like the one in Chile. It donates recycled water from its knowledge facilities to farmers, who use it to irrigate their crops, and it has additionally helped restore the rivers that offer water-stressed cities reminiscent of Cape Town, South Africa; in northern Virginia, it has labored to install cover crop farmland that may cut back runoff air pollution in native waterways. The corporate treats these initiatives the best way different corporations deal with carbon offsets, counting every gallon recharged in opposition to a gallon it consumes at its knowledge facilities. Amazon mentioned in its most recent sustainability report that it’s 41 p.c of the best way to assembly its purpose of being “water optimistic.” In different phrases, it has funded initiatives that recharge or preserve slightly over 4 gallons of water for each 10 gallons of water it makes use of.

However regardless of all this, the corporate’s water stewardship purpose doesn’t embody the water consumed by the ability crops that offer its knowledge facilities. This consumption will be as a lot as three to 10 occasions as giant because the on-site water consumption at a knowledge middle, in response to Shaolei Ren, a professor of engineering on the College of California, Riverside, who research knowledge middle water utilization. For instance, Ren pointed to an Amazon data center in Pennsylvania that depends on a nuclear power plant less than a mile away. That knowledge middle makes use of round 20 p.c of the ability plant’s capability.

“They are saying they’re utilizing little or no water, however there’s a giant water evaporation taking place simply close by, and that’s for powering their knowledge middle,” he mentioned.

Firms like Amazon can cut back this secondary water utilization by counting on renewable power sources, which don’t require anyplace close to as a lot water as conventional energy crops. Hewes says the corporate has been attempting to “handle down” each water and power wants by a separate purpose of working on 100 percent renewable energy, however Ren factors out that the corporate’s knowledge facilities want round the clock energy, which suggests intermittently obtainable renewables like photo voltaic and wind farms can solely go to date.

Amazon isn’t the one firm coping with this downside. CyrusOne, one other main knowledge middle agency, revealed in its sustainability report earlier this yr that it used greater than eight occasions as a lot water to supply energy because it did on-site at its knowledge facilities.

“So long as we’re reliant on grid electrical energy that features thermoelectric sources to energy our amenities, we’re not directly liable for the consumption of enormous quantities of water within the manufacturing of that electrical energy,” the report mentioned.

As for replenishment initiatives just like the one in Chile, they too will solely go a part of the best way towards lowering the impression of the information middle explosion. Even when Amazon’s cloud operations are “water optimistic” on a world scale, with initiatives in lots of the identical basins the place it owns knowledge facilities, that doesn’t imply it gained’t nonetheless compromise water entry in particular watersheds. The corporate’s knowledge facilities and their energy crops should withdraw extra water than the corporate replenishes in a given space, and replenishment initiatives in different aquifers around the globe gained’t deal with the bodily penalties of that particular overdraft.

“If they can seize a few of the rising water and clear it and return to the neighborhood, that’s higher than nothing, however I believe it’s not likely lowering the precise consumption,” Ren mentioned. “It masks out numerous actual issues, as a result of water is a extremely regional situation.”

Correction: This story has been corrected to make clear that Amazon’s “water optimistic” pledge applies solely to its internet companies division.

This text initially appeared in Grist. Grist is a nonprofit, unbiased media group devoted to telling tales of local weather options and a simply future. Study extra at Grist.org.