Greenpeace report How Clean is Your Cloud? I saw mentioned in 3T magazine news is actually quite interesting reading. This year’s report provides a look at the energy choices some of the largest and fastest growing IT companies. The report analyzes the 14 IT companies and the electricity supply chain in more than 80 data center cases.
The report contains also lots of interesting background information on both IT and telecom energy consumption. I recommend checking it out. Here are some points picked from How Clean is Your Cloud? report:
Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo – these global brands and a host of other IT companies are rapidly and fundamentally transforming the way in which we work, communicate, watch movies or TV, listen to music, and share pictures through “the cloud.”
The growth and scale of investment in the cloud is truly mind-blowing, with estimates of a 50-fold increase in the amount of digital information by 2020 and nearly half a trillion in investment in the coming year, all to create and feed our desire for ubiquitous access to infinite information from our computers, phones and other mobile devices, instantly.
The engine that drives the cloud is the data center. Data centers are the factories of the 21st century information age, containing thousands of computers that store and manage our rapidly growing collection of data for consumption at a moment’s notice. Given the energy-intensive nature of maintaining the cloud, access to significant amounts of electricity is a key factor in decisions about where to build these data centers. Industry leaders estimate nearly $450bn US dollars is being spent annually on new data center space.
Since electricity plays a critical role in the cost structure of companies that use the cloud, there have been dramatic strides made in improving the energy efficiency design of the facilities and the thousands of computers that go inside. However, despite significant improvements in efficiency, the exponential growth in cloud computing far outstrips these energy savings.
How much energy is required to power the ever-expanding online world? What percentage of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is attributable to the IT sector? Answers to these questions are very difficult to obtain with any degree of precision, partially due to the sector’s explosive growth, a wide range of devices and energy sources, and rapidly changing technology and business models. The estimates of the IT sector’s carbon footprint performed to date have varied widely in their methodology and scope. One of the most recognized estimates of the IT sector’s footprint was conducted as part of the 2008 SMART 2020 study, which established that the sector is responsible for 2% of global GHG emissions.
The combined electricity demand of the internet/cloud (data centers and telecommunications network) globally in 2007 was approximately 623bn kWh (if the cloud were a country, it would have the fifth largest electricity demand in the world). Based on current projections, the demand for electricity will more than triple to 1,973bn kWh (an amount greater than combined total demand of France, Germany, Canada and Brazil).
The report indicates that, due to the economic downturn and continued energy efficiency and performance improvements, global energy demand from data centers from 2005-2010 increased by 56%. Estimates of data center electricity demand come in at 31GW globally, with an increase of 19% in 2012 alone. At the same time global electricity consumption is otherwise essentially flat due to the global recession is still a staggering rate of growth.
Given the scale of predicted growth, the source of electricity must be factored into a meaningful definition of “green IT”. Energy efficiency alone will, at best, slow the growth of the sector’s footprint. The replacement of dirty sources of electricity with clean renewable sources is still the crucial missing link in the sector’s sustainability efforts according to the report.
The global telecoms sector is also growing rapidly. Rapid growth in use of smart phones and broadband mobile connections mean mobile data traffic in 2011 was eight times the size of the entire internet in 2000. It is estimated that global mobile data traffic grew 133% in 2011, with 597 petabytes of data sent by mobiles every month. In 2011, it is estimated that 6 billion people or 86.7% of the entire global population have mobile telephone subscriptions. By the end of 2012, the number of mobile connected devices is expected to exceed the global population. Electronic devices and the rapidly growing cloud that supports our demand for greater online access are clearly a significant force in driving global energy demand.
What about telecoms in the developing and newly industrialized countries? The report has some details from India (by the way it is expected that India will pass China to become the world’s largest mobile market in terms of subscriptions in 2012). Much of the growth in the Indian telecom sector is from India’s rural and semi-urban areas. By 2012, India is likely to have 200 million rural telecom connections at a penetration rate of 25%. Out of the existing 400,000 mobile towers, over 70% exist in rural and semi-urban areas where either grid-connected electricity is not available or the electricity supply is irregular. As a result, mobile towers and, increasingly, grid-connected towers in these areas rely on diesel generators to power their network operations. The consumption of diesel by the telecoms sector currently stands at a staggering 3bn liters annually, second only to the railways in India.
What is the case on other developing and newly industrialized countries? I don’t actually know.
NOTE: Please note that that many figures given on the report are just estimates based on quite little actual data, so they might be somewhat off the actual figures. Given the source of the report I would quess that if the figures are off, they are most probably off to direction so that the environmental effect looks bigger than it actually is.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19ANcoRYjf/
Data center cooling drank 17.4 billion gallons of water in a single year.
And the power plants behind them? Around 211 billion, roughly twelve times more, because generating that electricity needs water too.
Counting both, American data centers were estimated at 264 billion gallons last year.
Summer makes it worse, when hot weather can triple the cooling demand of a single site.
Nobody has to choose between the internet and the tap. Somebody has to write the law that says drinking water comes first.
Sources: EESI, Ceres
Tomi Engdahl says:
Collecting rainwater is an active area of interest for sustainable data center design, and some facilities do harvest rainwater to supplement their water supply. However, relying on rainwater as a primary cooling source runs into major practical and technical bottlenecks.
1. The Volume Discrepancy (Math Problem)
That entire year’s worth of harvested rainwater from data center roof would be evaporated away by a large cooling system in less than two to three weeks of summer operation.
2. Rainwater Is Not Pure Water
Even in areas with clean air, rainwater is far from pure by the time it reaches a cooling basin
3. The Geographic Mismatch
The locations where evaporative cooling uses the most water are hot, dry regions (like Arizona, Utah, or West Texas) where rainfall is scarce. Collecting rainwater in a desert yields almost nothing.
Conversely, in regions where it rains frequently (like Northern Europe or the Pacific Northwest), the air is usually cool enough that data centers use direct outdoor air cooling and don’t need to evaporate much water in the first place.
Current Industry Direction
Instead of relying on unpredictable rainwater, operators are turning to two main alternatives:
Municipal Reclaimed Wastewater (“Purple Pipe”): Using treated sewage/industrial effluent instead of drinking water or rainwater.
Closed-Loop & Air Cooling: Moving away from open evaporative towers altogether so the facility doesn’t rely on any continuous water supply.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A closed-loop cooling system is a sealed thermal management design that continuously recirculates a liquid coolant (such as treated water or a water-glycol mixture) through a closed circuit to absorb and transfer heat away from equipment.
Unlike open-loop systems—which spray water into the open air to cool by evaporation—a closed loop keeps the cooling fluid completely contained.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The landmark deal between Microsoft and Constellation Energy to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island marks the first time in U.S. history that a decommissioned nuclear power plant is being brought back online.
The agreement directly addresses the immense 24/7 power requirements of AI and cloud computing without adding greenhouse gas emissions.
https://www.constellationenergy.com/news/2024/Constellation-to-Launch-Crane-Clean-Energy-Center-Restoring-Jobs-and-Carbon-Free-Power-to-The-Grid.html?hl=en-US#:~:text=LONDONDERRY%2C%20PA%20(Sept%2020%2C%202024)%20Constellation%20(Nasdaq%3A,operated%20at%20industry%2Dleading%20levels%20of%20safety%20and
Tomi Engdahl says:
Datakeskukset käyttivät viime vuonna 1 000 000 000 litraa vettä Irlannissa
Valtaosasta vedenkulutusta vastaavat Metan ja Equinixin datakeskukset.
https://www.tekniikkatalous.fi/uutiset/a/70b1d9ec-8802-4bea-9a26-6858826b6e32?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwdGRjcATbuLhwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHgmDU492PPl2ZcYrs3ApAFim4nNVdLw6LTrfN6YoZ9S9im5ElSBxsqqFTUrj_aem_cEH0ZUETDrXB41KkM5m75g
Irlannissa datakeskukset käyttivät viime vuonna lähes miljardi litraa vettä. Todellisuudessa luku on hieman suurempi, koska vain suurimmilta datakeskuksilta vaaditaan raportti vedenkulutuksesta.
Asiasta kertoo The Journal
Valtaosa datakeskusten käyttämästä vedestä kului kahdessa datakeskuskompleksissa: Metan kampuksessa Cloneessa ja Equinixin datakeskuksessa Dublinissa. Näiden kahden datakeskuksen vedenkulutus oli yli 954 miljoonaa litraa.
Datakeskusten käyttämä vesimäärä vastaa noin 20 500 ihmisen vuotuista vedenkulutusta. Irlannin vesihuoltoyhtiö Uisce Éireannin mukaan datakeskusten merkitys maan vedenkulutuksessa on silti verrattain vähäinen.
”Datakeskukset eivät ole merkittävä kysyntäajuri julkisissa vesiverkoissa. Niiden osuus kokonaiskulutuksesta on alle 0,3 prosenttia. Modernit datakeskukset käyttävät melko vähän vettä, ja kaikki datakeskukset eivät ota vettään julkisesta vesiverkostosta”, yhtiö kertoi tiedotteessa.
The Journalin mukaan datakeskuksia suurempi vedenkäyttäjä on esimerkiksi lääketeollisuus
Metan ja Equinixin lisäksi maassa on esimerkiksi Amazonin, Googlen ja Microsoftin datakeskuksia.
Data centres used almost one billion litres of water last year, but another industry used far more
The Journal Investigates found that while data centres use huge quantities of water every year, pharmaceutical companies often use a lot more.
https://www.thejournal.ie/investigates-data-centre-water-use-7110966-Jul2026/?fbclid=IwVERDUATbuVJwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHiNkTiAjt8vMpaFLlUwxCXUXMSf6wCOUfJLX6QD-6wKsMBsGrIIoYFPOYaLK_aem_i8GjJQ0WL-qzHHjIY_Bkrw
Tomi Engdahl says:
the vast majority of new data centers being built in the U.S. are designed to consume minimal to near-zero direct water on-site.
While legacy facilities built over the past two decades relied heavily on open evaporative cooling towers (which evaporate millions of gallons of drinking water daily), the industry blueprint for new construction has shifted dramatically.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The old designs used open evaporative systems and the water use being quoted is based on those older designs. Modern data centre’s use closed loops that recycle tge water and consume far less water.
So the post is basically misinformation, at least regarding data centre’s being built now as opposed to old ones. That’s not to say there are no environmental impacts- there are- but using out of date irrelevant information to try and scare people about them is basically highly misinformed and deceptive.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Trucking water is unfeasible, but coastal facilities do pipe seawater directly into primary heat exchangers.
While saltwater never directly touches the servers, it is widely used in secondary cooling loops to chill closed internal freshwater loops without any issue.
Conductivity & Direct Cooling: In direct-to-chip or immersion systems, operators use deionized water or dielectric fluids specifically because pure H_2O acts as an electrical insulator, preventing short circuits. Saltwater would instantly cause short circuits and severe metal corrosion.
Eddy Currents: Eddy currents are induced by changing magnetic fields in conductors—not by fluids simply flowing past live wires. Saltwater flowing through a plastic or metal pipe past electronics does not generate problematic eddy currents.
While salt water can be used in open evaporative cooling towers, doing so requires specialized engineering trade-offs.
However, running salt water through an evaporative system introduces several distinct operational challenges:
1. Materials & Corrosion Resistance
Chloride ions in salt water aggressively attack common metals like standard carbon steel, galvanized iron, and low-grade stainless steels through pitting and crevice corrosion.
2. Reduced Thermal Efficiency
Salt alters the physical and thermodynamic properties of water. Compared to freshwater, high-salinity water has a lower vapor pressure and lower specific heat capacity. Depending on salinity levels, a saltwater cooling tower must be roughly 5% to 25% larger and run fans harder to achieve the same cooling capacity as a freshwater tower.
3. Biofouling & Marine Organisms
Warm, nutrient-rich seawater flowing through an open tower acts as an ideal breeding ground for marine life (mussels, barnacles, algae, and slime-forming bacteria).
4. Salt Drift & Atmospheric Mist
The Impact: If the drift mist contains high concentrations of salt, it forms a corrosive aerosol cloud. This salt spray damages nearby electrical transformers, outdoor infrastructure, and vehicles.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19NMz8mh6v/
America’s most expansive electrical grid is actively preparing to disconnect corporate data centers to prevent widespread civilian blackouts.
PJM Interconnection,the massive grid operator supplying 67 million citizens across 13 states and Washington, D.C. is currently drafting emergency protocols to manage the explosive, unregulated growth of artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The physical reality is catching up with the digital boom.
Under these new mandates, massive hyperscale server farms that fail to generate their own independent power could be deliberately severed from the public grid during severe capacity shortages.
Facilities equipped with backup generators would be forced off the main supply, instantly redirecting vital electricity back to residential neighborhoods and critical municipal services.
The breaking point arrived this summer.
During a recent energy capacity auction, the grid fell a staggering 6.8 gigawatts short of its strict reliability targets, even as wholesale prices skyrocketed to the absolute regulatory maximum.
The core issue is sheer, uncompromising scale.
A single modern hyperscale data center consumes roughly 100 megawatts continuously Sorry drawing; the exact same electrical load as an entire small city.
With grid operators forecasting an additional 70 gigawatts of demand from tech giants by 2038, officials are demanding a mandatory registry to track exactly where these energy-draining facilities are located to prevent sudden grid destabilization.
If the explosive growth of artificial intelligence begins to threaten the basic stability of the public electrical grid, should tech corporations be legally mandated to build their own independent power plants before breaking ground on new servers?
Learn more: / “Largest U.S. Grid May Cut Power to Data Centers to Prevent Blackouts.” Gadget Review
Largest U.S. Grid May Cut Power to Data Centers to Prevent Blackouts – Gadget Review
https://www.gadgetreview.com/largest-u-s-grid-may-cut-power-to-data-centers-to-prevent-blackouts
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why do we even need them? We have got along fine up to now with out hundreds of tgese things being built. The only reason i can see is that the billionaires see another way to make more money and to heck with the population that is affected by them.
You are using atleast 3 to post on here. Do you shop online? Or bank online? Or watch Netflix? Or use GPS in your car?
We need them because almost all of us are using them all day long.
Especially work from home people.
Tomi Engdahl says:
While closed loops don’t intentionally evaporate water into the atmosphere like open cooling towers, they are never 100% sealed forever:
Micro-Evaporation & Permeation: Fluid can slowly permeate through synthetic rubber hoses, seals, and gaskets over long periods.
Mechanical Seals & Vents: Pump seals, air release valves, and expansion tanks inevitably release small amounts of fluid or vapor.
Maintenance & Purging: Servicing pumps, replacing filters, or flushing system corrosion requires draining and topping off the loop.
Summary: While an open evaporative tower loses millions of gallons to steam daily, a “closed loop” still requires occasional makeup fluid (typically under 1%–5% of its total volume annually) to replace slow, minor losses.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18PTStBgR3/
The United Nations has warned that the world is approaching a global water crisis, with freshwater resources being consumed faster than many natural systems can recover.
Rising demand from agriculture, industry, growing populations, and climate change is placing unprecedented pressure on rivers, lakes, wetlands, and underground aquifers. In many regions, groundwater is being extracted more rapidly than it can be naturally replenished, while prolonged droughts and changing rainfall patterns are reducing available supplies.
UN experts caution that, without better water management and conservation, billions of people could face increasing water shortages, threatening food production, public health, ecosystems, and economic stability.
The warning underscores the urgent need to protect freshwater resources, improve efficiency, and invest in sustainable water solutions before today’s shortages become tomorrow’s long-term crisis.
World enters era of ‘global water bankruptcy’
https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/01/1166800
Tomi Engdahl says:
Globally, data centers represent a very small percentage of total worldwide freshwater use Total (Direct + Indirect Power Use) ~3.5 to 5 Trillion Liters ~0.08% to 0.12%
That is far dwarfed by agriculture (~70%) and general industry (~19%).
However, the reason water consumption generates significant public debate is geographic concentration: roughly 40% of global data centers sit in regions facing severe local water stress (such as the American Southwest), where even small local withdrawals can strain municipal supply.
Tomi Engdahl says:
1. “4,000 AI data centers, some larger than Manhattan”
The Reality: Extremely exaggerated on size.
The Numbers: There are roughly 10,000 total data centers worldwide of all sizes (enterprise, cloud, and AI), with about 1,000–1,200 being large “hyperscale” facilities.
The Scale: Manhattan covers roughly 23 square miles (nearly 15,000 acres). The largest data center campuses on Earth—such as massive gigawatt-scale developments in Virginia or xAI’s cluster in Memphis—cover around 500 to 1,500 acres. No single data center campus comes remotely close to the size of Manhattan.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Polluting tributaries in China, India and Indonesia”
The Reality: Distorts where the actual pollution happens.
Operational Data Centers: A running data center does not dump toxic chemicals into local rivers. Its main waste is heat (either clean water vapor from cooling towers or warm water returned to municipal treatment).
Supply Chain & Hardware Manufacturing: The real water pollution associated with tech occurs upstream during the mining of raw materials (lithium, rare earths) and semiconductor manufacturing (chip fabrication plants in Taiwan, China, and Southeast Asia). Microchip manufacturing uses heavy acids and solvents; while top manufacturers use strict recycling, poor regulatory oversight in some regions has historically led to local supply contamination.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Refusing to desalinate any of the earth’s 70% saltwater”
The Reality: Ignores basic geography and thermodynamics.
Why Desalination Isn’t Used inland: Over 90% of data centers are built inland, close to major electrical grids, fiber optic backbones, and population centers. Desalinating seawater at the coast and pumping it hundreds of miles inland would consume massive amounts of additional energy and create huge infrastructure costs.
Seawater in Coastal Facilities: Coastal facilities do use ocean water for secondary cooling loops (via corrosion-resistant heat exchangers).
The Industry Shift: The vast majority of new AI data centers are moving away from freshwater evaporation altogether, opting for closed-loop dry cooling and direct-to-chip liquid systems that continuously recirculate the same small volume of fluid without relying on massive water withdrawals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Data Centers vs. Green Lawns (Scale Comparison)
The idea that data centers will “take away our lawns” distorts the actual numbers. Residential grass irrigation dwarfs data center water use by orders of magnitude.
Lawn Watering: Residential outdoor irrigation across the U.S. consumes nearly 8 to 9 billion gallons of water every day.
Data Centers: All U.S. data centers combined draw direct operational water at a fraction of that volume (roughly 3% to 5% of what Americans pour onto suburban turf). Furthermore, modern AI facility builds are moving to closed-loop dry cooling, bringing direct water use on new sites near zero.
Tomi Engdahl says:
you actually pollute very little part of fresh water for AI nonsense.
Globally, data centers represent a very small percentage of total worldwide freshwater use Total (Direct + Indirect Power Use) ~3.5 to 5 Trillion Liters ~0.08% to 0.12%
Vased on studies from institutions like UC Riverside, Harvard, the IEA, and the UN University, researchers estimate that AI currently accounts for 15% to 25% of total global data center water consumption, with that share projected to rise rapidly to 30%–50%+ by 2030.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://futurism.com/science-energy/trump-biosolids-toxic-sewer-sludge-public-health-farmers?fbclid=IwdGRjcATcnw5jbGNrBNyfCnBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeMWBWsKgYT8rU8bAZyhlj1GzXdEP2nbeiURysrbhgbcTju3d8v_60Gug3Elo_aem_1-b0UZQCPyOODnhRZAw3Fw