Sector
Data centres
Data centres use water principally for cooling. Their water use has become prominent because facilities are large, individually visible, and often sited in water-stressed regions for reasons — cheap land and power — that have nothing to do with water availability.
Key facts
- Typical reported WUE for evaporatively cooled facilities
- roughly 1–2 litres per kWh of IT energy
- Air-cooled facilities
- Near zero on-site water, at higher energy use
- Indirect water via electricity
- Often exceeds direct on-site consumption, and is usually excluded from reported figures
What drives water use in this sector
- Cooling technology: evaporative, air-cooled, or liquid cooling
- Local climate — evaporative cooling uses far more water in hot dry conditions
- Water source: potable, reclaimed, or non-potable
- IT load and power usage effectiveness
- Whether indirect water use from electricity generation is counted at all — usually it is not
Related intelligence
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Sources
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — AQUASTAT — Global Information System on Water and Agriculture. Public but restricted · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO
- United States Geological Survey — Estimated Use of Water in the United States. Open · US Government work — public domain
- International Energy Agency — Water–energy nexus analysis. Public but restricted · Publisher terms — public access, reuse not clearly granted