4 ms·

This abundance of marketing (not necessarily this blog post) is happening because of all the environmental chatter about AI and data centers recently. Google w

This abundance of marketing (not necessarily this blog post) is happening because of all the environmental chatter about AI and data centers recently. Google wants you to know it recycles its water. It's free points. Edit: to clarify, normal social media is being flooded with stories about AI energy and water usage. Google isn't greenwashing, they're simply showing how things work and getting good press for something they already do.

mlyle 1y ago
Google uses plenty of water in cooling towers and chillers. Sure, water cooling loops to the server may reduce the amount a little bit compared to fans, but this isn't "recycling" in any normal sense. It's mostly a play for density.
Legend2440 1y ago
The environmental impact of water usage seems way overblown to me. Last year, U.S. data centers consumed 17 billion gallons of water. Which sounds like a lot, but the US as a whole uses 300 billion gallons of water every day. Water is not a scarce resource in much of the country.
- foota 1y ago
  Personally, I agree. That said, I think it might be worth considering the impact of water usage in local areas that are relatively water constrained.
- Guvante 1y ago
  To be clear all talk of water usage has been focusing on local usage which isn't well represented by national numbers.
  - abdullahkhalids 1y ago
    Yeah. There are metrics for how water stressed a community is. We know where data centers have been built, and we know how these water metrics have changed over time. The correct metric is something like, what's the probability that the launch of data center in a location results in nearby communities to drop significantly in these water metrics.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- bee_rider 1y ago
  It seems like a very minor problem next to the huge super obvious one, electricity use.
quickthrowman 1y ago
Google almost certainly uses evaporative cooling towers, it’s almost twice as efficient as air cooled chillers by themselves.

mlyle 1y ago

Google uses plenty of water in cooling towers and chillers. Sure, water cooling loops to the server may reduce the amount a little bit compared to fans, but this isn't "recycling" in any normal sense. It's mostly a play for density.

Legend2440 1y ago

The environmental impact of water usage seems way overblown to me. Last year, U.S. data centers consumed 17 billion gallons of water. Which sounds like a lot, but the US as a whole uses 300 billion gallons of water every day. Water is not a scarce resource in much of the country.

foota 1y ago
Personally, I agree. That said, I think it might be worth considering the impact of water usage in local areas that are relatively water constrained.
Guvante 1y ago
To be clear all talk of water usage has been focusing on local usage which isn't well represented by national numbers.
- abdullahkhalids 1y ago
  Yeah. There are metrics for how water stressed a community is. We know where data centers have been built, and we know how these water metrics have changed over time. The correct metric is something like, what's the probability that the launch of data center in a location results in nearby communities to drop significantly in these water metrics.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
bee_rider 1y ago
It seems like a very minor problem next to the huge super obvious one, electricity use.

quickthrowman 1y ago

Google almost certainly uses evaporative cooling towers, it’s almost twice as efficient as air cooled chillers by themselves.