In a recent article for聽The Conversation, Peyton McCauley, Water Policy Specialist, and Professor Melissa Scanlan, Director, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee鈥檚 Center for Water Policy聽examined the growing water demands of data centers driven by artificial intelligence, and why transparency and a consistency in the tracking and reporting of water use is needed.
As demand for artificial intelligence technology boosts of data centers around the world, those computers require not just electricity and land, but also a significant amount of water. Data centers use water directly, with pumped through pipes in and around the computer equipment. They also use water indirectly, through the water required to produce the electricity to power the facility. The amount of water used to produce electricity when the source is fossil fuels compared with solar or wind.
鈥� The Conversation