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.
1,268 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Dmq3LXQCB/
We usually think about AI in terms of what happens on a screen.
A question gets answered. A video loads. A file appears in the cloud. A recommendation shows up almost instantly.
But somewhere behind all of that is a physical world of computers, buildings, electricity, cooling systems, land—and in some places, a lot of water.
Data centers are becoming the infrastructure behind much of modern digital life. They run AI systems, cloud services, streaming platforms and countless other technologies that most of us use without ever thinking about what is happening inside those buildings.
As the demand for computing grows, so does the pressure on the resources needed to keep these facilities running. Cooling alone can require significant amounts of water and energy, depending on the technology and location.
That doesn’t mean innovation has to stop.
It means the infrastructure supporting it has to evolve too.
Researchers, engineers and communities are looking at ways to reduce that footprint, including more efficient computing, cleaner sources of electricity, water-saving cooling systems and the use of recycled water where possible.
The real challenge isn’t choosing between technology and the environment.
It’s figuring out how to build the next generation of technology without treating the resources around us as unlimited.
AI may be digital, but the systems that make it possible are very real.
And if technology is going to keep moving forward, the way we power and cool it has to move forward with it
Tomi Engdahl says:
If you want to preserve resources then look at power stations that use way more water then data centers, golf courses that use even more then power stations and personal lawns that use more then gold courses. You’re screaming at the leaves when the root of the problem is right there
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google is facing a regulatory investigation in Finland after clearing over 300 hectares of forest in Muhos and Kajaani without required local permits and before finishing environmental impact assessments for its major data center project.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://woodcentral.com.au/google-finland-data-centre-felling/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Claim seen:
Doesn’t nasa have a heat dispursing foam we could spray instead of using water? Or maybe use contaminated water to begin with? Or perhaps use ai to figure out a way to not use fresh water? This seems like an intellectual problem more than a mechanical problem; how ironic.
Answer:
This claim stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of physics and thermodynamics: data center cooling is not about containing or blocking heat—it is about moving heat away from electricity-hungry chips into the surrounding atmosphere.
The phrase “heat-dispersing foam insulation” is actually a fictional item trope from video games (like Deus Ex). NASA does use foam—such as spray-on foam insulation (SOFI) on space shuttle tanks and aerogels for space suits—but foam is an insulator, not a coolant.
There are data centers that actually do use reclaimed/greywater whenever possible, but doing so presents major engineering trade-offs.
AI is Already Optimizing This: Google, Microsoft, and AWS already use machine learning algorithms to tune HVAC flow rates, chiller speeds, and server loads based on weather forecasts. However, AI cannot bypass the First Law of Thermodynamics—heat must physically transfer somewhere.
Cooling is a Physics Problem, Not a Coding Problem: To cool a 100-megawatt data center without water, you must transfer that thermal energy into ambient air using dry coolers (radiators) or have some other place you can send it to (there are countries where hneat from data centers in reused for district heating, keep swimming pools warm, heat greenhouses, etc.)
The reason tech companies are shifting away from fresh water isn’t because of a magic foam or an AI revelation; it’s because municipalities are forcing them to switch to closed-loop dry-cooling radiators (accepting higher power bills) or direct-to-chip liquid cooling that continuously recirculates closed fluid without evaporating a single drop.
Tomi Engdahl says:
depends on the system
“The water is reused. It doesn’t just disappear after it’s used.”
Cooling water is either in a closed-loop, pressurized system (no contamination; it stays in the hydronic cycle)
OR
a total‑loss well system where water taken from the ground is returned to the ground.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here is the whole story:
In Closed-Loop Systems (Zero-Water Data Centers): They do recycle water indefinitely. These facilities fill internal cooling pipes once, sealed like a car’s radiator, continuously recirculating the same fluid without losing water to the atmosphere.
In Evaporative Systems (High-Water Data Centers): They recycle water a few times on-site, but ultimate consumption is lost through evaporation. Water is cycled through cooling towers 3 to 7 times. However, as pure H2O evaporates into steam to strip away heat, minerals concentrate in the remaining liquid. Eventually, this mineral-heavy “blowdown water” must be flushed into municipal sewers, while the evaporated water exits into the atmosphere—meaning it is consumed, not recycled back into the local aquifer.
Reclaimed “Greywater” Usage: Some operators do “recycle” at a municipal level by using treated city sewage effluent instead of drinking water. While this avoids tapping potable supplies, that water is still evaporated away into the atmosphere during cooling.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Claims seen:
Communist China is funding opposition to data centers in America. The Communists want to dominate us and fools are falling for it. There are hundreds of data centers that have been in operation for decades. They have never bothered anyone. They don’t have to make noise and they don’t consume water rather it’s recycled just like the water in your car radiator. It’s all lies for the weakminded. If you are lucky to get a data center in your county you can see your property taxes cut in half because the data center will be paying massive taxes. You will also see your electric bill lowered.
That claim packs a lot of intense statements together, reflecting how heated local debates over technology, taxes, and resources have become across the country. Breaking down what actually happens with data centers shows a picture that is quite different from these extreme claims.
There is no reliable evidence or official intelligence report showing that foreign governments like China are funding local grassroots movements against data centers in the U.S. There is evidence on spreading on-line propaganda in social media platforms.
Modern hyperscale data centers require massive industrial cooling units, backup diesel generators, and electrical transformers. Large cooling fans and chillers run continuously (24/7), producing a low-frequency hum. While newer designs include sound walls and acoustic baffling, noise remains one of the top complaints from neighbors living near newly built facilities. There are many smaller data centers that do not bother anyone near.
Water Usage Mechanics
Closed-Loop Systems: These do operate like a radiator, using a sealed fluid loop with zero ongoing water loss.
Evaporative Towers: Many existing facilities use open-loop evaporative towers to save electricity. In these systems, water is continuously evaporated into steam to carry away heat, consuming millions of gallons of municipal water that leaves the local watershed rather than staying in a closed loop.
Taxes and Local Electric Bills
The economic trade-offs for local communities vary significantly depending on local policy.
Debates around data center siting usually come down to standard local planning questions: balancing industrial tax revenue against regional power grid capacity, water availability, and noise for nearby residents.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Data centers are essentially the physical factories of the modern internet. Claiming they “serve no other purpose” than to drain resources misses the fact that almost every digital service in modern society runs inside one.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Not One Massive Central Data Center?
Building a single, giant “global data center” fails due to two major physical constraints:
The Speed of Light (Latency): Data travels through fiber-optic cables as light signals. If all the world’s data centers were in one location (e.g., Iceland), a user clicking a button in Tokyo or Sydney would experience noticeable delays (latency) waiting for the signal to travel across the globe and back. Real-time tasks like medical imaging, financial trading, or voice calls would lag significantly.
Single Point of Failure & Grid Limits: Stacking tens of gigawatts of computing power in one geographic location would require a power grid larger than most small nations, and any regional power outage or natural disaster would take down the global internet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Your curiosity is hitting on several real engineering concepts—and asking these exact “what if” questions is precisely how engineers evaluate new site designs and cooling architectures.
Yes, at its root, the long-term data center challenge is fundamentally a power generation and heat rejection problem.
1. “Would smaller nuclear power akin to military submarines work?”
Yes—and this is actively happening right now.
The technology you’re referring to is called a Small Modular Reactor (SMR). Submarines have used compact nuclear reactors for decades, and the tech industry is pivoting hard toward them.
2. “Can we vacuum seal secondary containers?”
Vacuum sealing is a great way to prevent heat from entering something (like a Thermos flask), but for a data center, it creates the opposite problem: it traps heat inside.
3. “Would low-pressure cooling cause condensation as a secondary measure?”
In thermodynamics, reducing pressure actually makes water boil at lower temperatures (this is why water boils at 90°C on top of Mount Everest instead of 100°C).
Engineers actually do use low-pressure or phase-change cooling in advanced setups.
4. “No one said anything had to be at sea level—or why not build one central data center?”
Siting Above Sea Level / Cold Climates
Moving data centers to higher altitudes or cold northern latitudes (like Sweden, Norway, or Iceland) is one of the most effective strategies in use today. Cold mountain or arctic air allows for “free air cooling,” where outside air is blown directly through the building without needing evaporative water or heavy refrigeration chillers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Modern data centers do not consume water, they are closed-loop. The bathrooms and landscaping consume the most water in a modern data center. By the way, how is your golf game going?
Tomi Engdahl says:
While reusing vacant warehouses sounds like an ideal fix on paper, converting existing industrial buildings into modern data centers is rarely practical for several major technical reasons:
Massive Power Scale Mismatch: Standard warehouses are wired for lighting and light equipment (a few hundred kilowatts). Modern cloud and AI data centers require 50 to 500+ Megawatts—the power equivalent of a small city. Existing industrial parks almost never have the high-voltage power lines or substations on-site to handle that load.
Floor Load Limits: High-density server racks weigh between 2,000 and 4,000 lbs. Standard warehouse concrete slabs are engineered for light storage and would crack or collapse without completely tearing out the floor and repouring massive reinforced concrete foundations.
Roof & Ceiling Constraints: Modern data centers require significant vertical clearance for hot/cold air containment and heavy HVAC/chilled-water cooling systems. Standard warehouse roofs aren’t structurally engineered to support thousands of pounds of overhead cooling infrastructure.
Fiber and Grid Logistics: Facilities must sit directly alongside major fiber optic backbones and utility supply nodes. Most empty warehouses were located based on truck highway access, not high-speed data trunks or utility grid capacity.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Converting former paper mills into high-density data centers has been one of Finland’s most successful industrial adaptive reuse strategies. As graphic paper demand declined over the past two decades, paper mill closures left behind world-class industrial assets ideally suited for modern compute infrastructure: high-capacity electrical grid connections (100+ MW), heavy-duty building shells, existing industrial water intake systems, and direct access to district heating networks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Power Grid Locality: Building one giant 10-Gigawatt facility in a single state would exceed the capacity of regional power grids. Spreading facilities across the country matches regional grid capacities.
Risk Diversification: Concentrating infrastructure in a few locations creates extreme vulnerability to regional power grid failures, earthquakes, or physical grid attacks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1MhydT6KJk/
Burning the earth to make AI-generated cartoons and fake photos may be the dumbest time to be alive.
MIT Technology Review’s analysis estimated that a high-quality AI image used about as much energy as a microwave running for 5.5 seconds. A five-second AI video used more than 700 times that energy, roughly equal to running a microwave for over an hour. The IEA says coal and natural gas supplied much of global data-center electricity.
#photography #ArtificialIntelligence #Energy
References:
MIT Technology Review:We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard.
International Energy Agency:Energy and AI examines data-center electricity demand, supply sources, and future growth.
Union of Concerned Scientists:Environmental impacts of AI include rising electricity demand from increasingly energy-intensive applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Wind and solar are NOT green or efficient… facts!”
Energy Return on Investment (EROI): Utility-scale solar panels pay back the energy required to manufacture, transport, and install them within 1 to 2 years of operation. Over a 25-to-30-year lifespan, a solar installation generates 10 to 20 times more clean energy than it took to create.
Lifecycle Carbon Emissions: While wind turbines and solar panels do require mining (silicon, copper, rare earths) and manufacturing, their lifecycle carbon footprint is 90% to 95% lower than coal or natural gas per megawatt-hour generated.
Efficiency Context: Solar photovoltaic (PV) efficiency (typically 20%–24% for commercial panels) measures how much sunlight is converted directly to electricity. While that sounds low, solar has zero fuel cost. In contrast, a traditional coal plant converts about 33% of its thermal fuel energy into electricity while continuously burning fossil fuels.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Solar requires back up power / doesn’t work for baseload”
This part is partially true, but incomplete. Solar and wind are intermittent (they only generate power when the sun shines or the wind blows).
The Modern Solution: Grids do not rely on solar alone. They pair utility-scale solar with grid-scale battery storage (BESS), pumped hydro, or natural gas “peaker” plants to smooth out supply. In places like California and Texas, massive battery installations now store daytime solar energy to power the grid through peak evening hours.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The transition to clean energy isn’t happening because of “marketing brainwashing”—it’s happening because utility-scale solar and wind are now the cheapest sources of new electricity generation per megawatt-hour in most of the world.
The real engineering challenge isn’t whether solar or wind work; it’s building out grid storage, transmission lines, and baseload power (like nuclear or geothermal) fast enough to support growing demand from computing, manufacturing, and transportation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19VSwtX7vb/
AI data centers are exploring new cooling technologies as increasingly powerful chips generate enormous amounts of heat.
One emerging approach is two-phase immersion cooling, where computing hardware is surrounded by a non-conductive liquid. Heat from the chips causes the liquid to vaporize, carrying heat away before the vapor condenses and returns to the cooling cycle.
Some specialized cooling fluids are fluorinated chemicals, and certain fluorinated compounds fall under the broad category of PFAS, often called “forever chemicals” because many persist in the environment.
The technology can significantly reduce on-site water consumption compared with conventional water-based cooling. However, that does not mean every data center is replacing water with PFAS, nor are all immersion-cooling fluids necessarily PFAS. Chemical selection, containment, recycling and disposal are important environmental considerations.
As AI infrastructure expands, the industry is increasingly balancing electricity use, water consumption, heat management and chemical impacts when designing new data centers.
#fblifestyle #Polarbear #AI #DataCenters #WaterCrisis
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FThDBayLH/
Memphis, Tennessee’s Colossus 2 AI data center has an estimated computing-power capacity of about 946 megawatts, according to the figures provided.
If its equipment operated continuously at full capacity for an entire year, that would translate to roughly 8.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, comparable to the annual electricity purchases of approximately 770,000 average U.S. homes.
The enormous power demand comes from the specialized computing chips used to train and operate advanced AI models. Those systems also generate substantial heat, requiring cooling infrastructure that adds to the facility’s overall energy needs.
Meeting demand at this scale can require significant upgrades to local power infrastructure and potentially additional generation capacity. As AI data centers continue expanding, their electricity requirements are becoming an increasingly important issue for utilities, communities and policymakers.
The comparison with households illustrates the scale of the infrastructure behind modern AI, even though the actual electricity consumption of a facility depends on how much of its capacity is operating at any given time.
#fblifestyle #Polarbear #AI #DataCenters #Energy
Tomi Engdahl says:
If it’s been there for 10 years it is not a hyperscale data center. There have been smaller data centers around for decades that do not have the grave impact on the environment and life that the new ai centers have. Does yours cover 100s of acres of land? does its generators spew pollutants? Does it broadcast a constant grating noise? If it does not then it is like an old style center that has supported internet usage for decades. These days there is newer tech that does not require the output and input of water and energy that the currently pushed centers do. It is more a financial problem investors are facing as the currently pushed out obsolete tech is reaching a bubble that will cost them big time. Don’t be a fool who trades off clean water, air and peace for a big techbros swindle.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Combined, wind and solar account for around 26% to 27% of total domestic electricity production in my home country. In Finland’s electricity generation mix, hydropower accounts for roughly 14% to 17% of domestic production. Nuclear power remains the primary baseline source, generating roughly 38–40% of total production.
That mix works. Fossil fuels are expensive because of fuel has gotten more expensive and there is significant cost for emitted CO2. In Europe, power producers must buy standard EU Emission Allowances (EUAs) for every tonne of CO2 emitted. Current EU Allowance (EUA) Price: ~€80–€85 per tonne of CO2. This makes fossil fuel power stations close one after another.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Modern data centers use closed loop cooling systems which do not require a constant supply of water. They are also being required to provide their own power through geothermal, solar and natural gas generators. There is a lot of misinformation on data centers in the US right now and we are finding out that China is the culprit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1TeUUaKkap/
Ireland’s data centers are now consuming almost as much electricity as every home in the country combined.
Official figures from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office show that data centers consumed 7,663 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity in 2025, accounting for an extraordinary 23% of the country’s total metered electricity consumption.
For comparison, all urban and rural households combined accounted for about 28%.
The transformation has been rapid. In 2015, data centers used just 1,240 GWh, representing around 5% of Ireland’s metered electricity. By 2025, their electricity consumption had increased by roughly 518%, reaching more than six times its level a decade earlier.
And the growth is continuing. Data-center electricity use increased another 10% in 2025 alone, while electricity consumption among all other users—including homes and businesses—rose by only 2%.
Ireland has become one of Europe’s major data-center hubs, hosting infrastructure that supports cloud computing, online services and increasingly energy-intensive AI workloads. But the extraordinary concentration of these facilities is also creating major challenges for the national electricity system.
Ireland’s Commission for Regulation of Utilities has introduced new connection requirements for data centers. New facilities seeking grid connections must provide matching generation or storage capacity and are required to meet at least 80% of their annual electricity demand with additional renewable electricity projects in Ireland.
The scale of the challenge is significant: Ireland’s grid regulator says data-center electricity demand could rise to around 31% of national electricity demand by 2034 under currently contracted demand.
Ireland is becoming one of the clearest real-world examples of a question many countries may soon face: how much electricity should increasingly digital economies dedicate to the infrastructure behind cloud computing and artificial intelligence?
Sources:
Central Statistics Office Ireland — Data Centres Metered Electricity Consumption 2025
Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) — New Electricity Connection Policy for Data Centres, December 2025
Tomi Engdahl says:
Comments seen
I saw something around the time Dolly Parton passed away that said there is a “closed loop” system, like in park fountains etc that recycles the water. I mention Dolly as someone put up about all the AI illustrations of her going to Heaven etc and that uses water. I was like… what?? The data centres (apparently) go into overdrive to create those which (i was told) uses more water. Until i saw about the closed loop system. Weird how we find this stuff out.
It’s more like your car radiator than a fountain. Water goes around the engine, cools the parts down by getting heated up, then goes to a radiator to cool down again, and round and round it goes.
your answer makes perfect sense from a man only interested in computers and not someone concerned with humanity or the environmental impact this advancement in technology has on everything we need for survival.
If we leave the water out of the equation for now, we still have the decimation of land, important farmland, loss of wildlife habitat etc just to build these huge, metal blots on our landscape ! Huge quantities of concrete being levelled onto our landscapes for foundations! The environmental impact of these data / surveillance centres is massive. It’s not just water usage, it’s their electricity consumption too. Not to mention the toxic pollutants used in their cooling systems. Or the loud noise interference to people living close to them. I’m sure there are many other reasons why they’re not great for humanity or the environment but I’ll leave you to do some more research.
Actually, my job is research, so I don’t need to be advised to try it. And your rather personal assumptions about my interest and understanding in the environment and humanity are way off the mark, thank you.
I’ve put a fair bit of time in trying to understand and reduce the environmental impact of computing and data centres over the years. I am therefore 100% supportive of a proper debate about future data centres and their impact, but it should be informed by facts and evidence and not misinformation. I’ll continue to inform people of those facts in an open and honest way as best as I can, whether that’s for water, power, noise, or whatever is concerning them.
Then it won’t use any water other than the initial fill as it is a sealed system.
Correct but the idiots don’t understand that they use a water/glycol liquid just like a car cooling system and a heat exchanger to cool the fluid like your radiator does. I’ve designed loads of cooling systems for data centres not one of them use water, and in the US in most states it’s illegal to use water. The earlier data centres did but they now coming off line as new tech takes over
Thank goodness to hear from somebody that knows what they are talking about..i can’t understand how people know so little and believe whatever nonsense they see in a meme.
Prominent AI experts, researchers, and tech executives have warned that advanced artificial intelligence poses an existential risk that could lead to the end of humanity!
I mean the experts in their field have said this, it’s pretty clear that there is a real risk!
Every country is worried they will get left  behind.
Well I’m quite happy to get left behind thank you very much!
In the old days they were known as “server farms” but AI has created demand for much more data processing. The scale of them is huge, they certainly need to be regulated, AI has to be handled responsibly too.
Source: comments at https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FL14HQVah/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Dy8Z9ax5g/
Data centers are driving a public health crisis, a recent analysis by Harvard scientist reveals.
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence has created an unprecedented demand for electricity, driving data centers in regions like Virginia, Texas, and Mississippi to build on-site, fossil-fuel-powered generators.
While the tech sector focuses on grid reliability, public health experts warn of severe consequences from these localized power sources.
A recent analysis by Harvard biostatistician Michael Cork revealed that fine particulate matter and air emissions from just one data center facility in Loudoun County, Virginia, could cause up to 99 million in annual health damages, including premature deaths and increased hospitalizations.
These massive, on-site fossil fuel plants are frequently built near highly populated or socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods, bringing chronic smog and dangerous emissions directly to residents backyards.
Beyond toxic air, communities surrounding these industrial hubs are enduring a second, invisible hazard: constant low-frequency noise. Residents living near facilities in the U.S. and Europe report debilitating symptoms, including sleep disruption, headaches, and chronic stress caused by the relentless hum of massive cooling systems, fans, and backup generators.
Decades of medical research establish that chronic environmental noise disrupts cardiovascular health, elevates stress hormones, and impairs cognitive development in children. As technology giants aggressively scale their physical infrastructure, advocates argue that the hidden medical and environmental costs of AI are being systemically ignored during regulatory and permitting processes.
source: Feldscher, K. 2026. Analyzing air pollution health, economic risks from AI data centers. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
What are your thoughts on balancing technological progress with public health? Have you considered the physical footprint of our digital world?
Disclaimer: This content is for informational and educational purposes only.
Tomi Engdahl says:
If you are thinking of the famous underwater server trial, that was Microsoft:
Project Natick: In 2015, Microsoft launched Project Natick to test submerged data centers. In 2018, they sank a sealed container with 864 servers 117 feet deep off the coast of Scotland’s Orkney Islands.
The Results: It was remarkably successful
Current Status: Microsoft officially wrapped up the project in 2024, concluding that while submerged pressure vessels work well, the operational complexity of servicing hardware at the bottom of the ocean makes large-scale deployment impractical.
Tomi Engdahl says:
No, Google has not deployed actual underwater data centers, though it is a common point of confusion due to two distinct things Google did do:
Patents for Water-Based Data Centers:
Google patented concepts for water-based and floating data centers (including US Patent 7,525,207 in 2009).
Undersea Cables (Not Data Centers):
Google frequently makes headlines for deploying massive subsea infrastructure, but these are transoceanic fiber-optic communications cables.
Tomi Engdahl says:
People in Finland have found out that data centers can be much less bad for environment than news on Facebook claim.
A hyperscale AI data centers can significantly keep inside of houses warm (and not air) without fossil fuels near the data center when the waste heat is fed to district heating system.
Waste heat can be managed mostly with heat reuse and closed loop cooling does not waste water.
The enormous electricity use is still here.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The exterior lighting around US data centers is driven primarily by physical security requirements, legal liability, and insurance compliance. Maybe there should be light pollution regulations also.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The placement of data center is matters people should not have to endure this type of stuff
Put them in places where people don’t want to live or other industrial areas, but not near neighborhoods or farms or parks or zoos or neighborhoods where there’s direct impact of people and definitely not near waterways
We can’t stop technology advancing, but they need to figure it out and make sure it doesn’t contaminate our environment or burden the people
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1JjRGNzHdn/
Meta is funding 10 natural-gas power plants in rural Louisiana to supply its massive Hyperion AI data center. The campus in Richland Parish could cost more than $50 billion and span nearly 10 million square feet.
2. Hyperion Could Need More Power Than New Orleans
The AI campus is expected to require around 5 GW of continuous power, while the planned gas plants would provide more than 7 GW of generation capacity. That makes Hyperion’s electricity demand roughly 4–6 times New Orleans’ peak load of about 1.2 GW.
3. One AI Campus Is Driving an Entire Power System
Meta’s project shows how quickly AI data centers are transforming electricity demand, requiring new generation and grid infrastructure to provide reliable 24/7 power. Meta has also agreed to support up to 2.5 GW of renewable energy and battery storage.
Ref. Sources:
Bloomberg
Yahoo Finance
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18Y5GMVx32/
AI may exist on our screens, but the infrastructure powering it has a very physical footprint. Large data centers can consume millions of gallons of water each day, depending on their size, cooling systems, climate, and operating conditions. A 2026 analysis found that 517 of 809 planned US data centers were located in areas that had experienced drought during the previous year. Not every facility uses water at that scale, and newer cooling technologies can significantly reduce direct water consumption. As AI infrastructure expands, water use and the location of new data centers are becoming increasingly important environmental considerations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18oDTJ5jgR/
Nobody told you this, but Helsinki’s district heating network is one of the world’s most advanced, integrating deep geothermal, data center waste heat, and seawater heat pumps. The Koskelo project drills 6–8 km deep wells that produce superhot water, feeding the city’s 1,400 km insulated pipe network. The system runs so efficiently that 90% of Helsinki’s heat comes from low-carbon sources, including underground warmth. Even the excess heat from a Microsoft data center and the city’s wastewater treatment plant gets captured. District heating isn’t new, but feeding it with geothermal and waste heat is revolutionary. The pipes silently deliver heat to radiators without combustion at the point of use. It’s a model for any cold city: instead of each building burning gas, tap the stable heat below. The ground is a giant battery, always on, always 30°C at depth.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ask questions and research. Not every datacenter is the same.
What kind of cooling system will it use?
Where will it get its water?
Does your municipality have access to purple, gray, recycled, or reclaimed water.
If you cant answer those questions you dont belong in the conversation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14qgTvVxgTC/
A five-second AI video can disappear from your screen almost instantly, yet producing it can require a surprising amount of energy.
MIT Technology Review has reported an estimate of around 3.4 million joules to generate a high-quality five-second AI video under specific test conditions. That was more than 700 times the energy used to generate an AI image in the same comparison, roughly equivalent to running a microwave for more than an hour.
The number should not be treated as a universal figure. Energy consumption changes with the AI model, video quality, resolution, hardware, and number of generation attempts. Still, the comparison highlights a growing problem: video generation requires far more computing power than many simpler AI tasks.
All of that computation happens inside data centers filled with specialized processors. Those machines consume electricity while generating content, and additional power is needed to keep the equipment cool and run the surrounding infrastructure.
The International Energy Agency estimates that global data-center electricity consumption reached about 485 terawatt-hours in 2025. It expects that figure to roughly double to around 950 terawatt-hours by 2030, with AI-focused data centers among the fastest-growing sources of demand.
The environmental impact also depends on how that electricity is produced. Renewable energy is expanding and is expected to supply a large share of new data-center demand, but natural gas, coal, nuclear power, and other energy sources remain part of the global electricity mix.
AI itself is becoming more efficient. Newer hardware and software can produce more output from less energy per task. The problem is that people are also using AI for increasingly demanding applications, including high-resolution video, complex reasoning, and systems that perform many tasks continuously.
That leaves us with a difficult question about how we use this technology. AI can be extremely valuable for science, education, engineering, medicine, and creative work. But generating endless streams of disposable content comes with a physical cost that remains hidden behind a simple button on a screen.
The goal should not be to reject AI. It should be to build more efficient systems and use their enormous computing power where it actually provides value.
A five-second video may take only seconds to watch. The computers behind it can consume millions of joules to create it.
Sources: MIT Technology Review; International Energy Agency (IEA).
Tomi Engdahl says:
“One man about 60 years old had his voice box taken out because of a cancer that only smokers get, but that guy hadn’t smoked a day of his life.” https://trib.al/gMXubyC
Toxic Neighbor
Amazon Data Center Linked to Cluster of Rare Cancers
“The historical precedent here is Flint, Michigan.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/amazon-data-center-oregon?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUzGuVjbGNrBTMazWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHBkb2YFc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeKAZeVLJRzIGPsyn7uwl-15jnHB4zDPUi_w2cXtL5PRhYGgjbCehea0rKKLs_aem_siCkU1GJ5NFD1yiOBDAF4Q
For the hundreds of communities who’ve been saddled with data centers in recent years, the bulky fixtures are sources of unbearable noise, soaring energy prices, and plenty of electrical fires.
Add another grim possibility to that list: debilitating rare cancers.
Reporting on the “data center boom” in the state of Oregon, Rolling Stone tells the story of Jim Doherty, a cattle rancher and former county commissioner of Morrow, in eastern Oregon.
Doherty’s story began when he noticed a rise in bizarre medical conditions among the county’s 45,000 residents, linked to toxins in the local water. Working with the county health office, the rancher-turned-official began a survey of 70 wells throughout his jurisdiction — 68 of which, his testing found, violated the federal limit for nitrates in drinking water.
Amazon’s hulking data center, thirsty for water to cool its blazing hot computer chips, supercharged this process, adding millions of gallons of wastewater a year to the heavy volume of farm runoff, which Morrow County was already struggling to keep up with. Soon even the deepest reaches of the local aquifer were tainted, according to RS, as huge volumes of data center and agricultural wastewater saturated the water table.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Julkinen keskustelu datakeskuksista perustuu vääriin lukuihin ja menee usein asian vierestä, toteaa Helsingin yliopistolla tehty tuore raportti.
Uutisia seuraamalla tulee helposti vaikutelma, että Suomen koko sähköntuotanto tarvitaan pian uusien datakeskusten pyörittämiseen.
Luvut kuitenkin hämäävät.
Lue koko uutinen: https://www.helsinki.fi/fi/uutiset/teknologia/raportti-datakeskusten-megawatit-eivat-kerro-koko-totuutta?utm_campaign=&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=facebook&utm_content=&utm_term=
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19ypBnE5AG/
AI content can have a real energy cost — especially when it moves beyond simple text and images into increasingly intensive video generation.
The International Energy Agency reports that AI-focused data centres are driving rapidly growing electricity demand. In 2025, electricity consumption from AI-focused data centres grew by about 50%, while total data-centre electricity use increased by 17%. 0
The IEA projects global data-centre electricity consumption to roughly double from around 485 TWh in 2025 to about 950 TWh by 2030. AI-focused data-centre electricity use is expected to grow even faster. 1
And the electricity isn’t automatically clean. The IEA estimates that coal currently supplies about 30% of electricity consumed by data centres globally, while natural gas supplies about 26%. Renewables provide about 27%. 2
That doesn’t mean every AI-generated image or video has an enormous individual environmental footprint — efficiency is improving rapidly, and the energy required per AI task is falling. But the huge growth in AI usage can offset those efficiency gains.
The bigger question is how we balance the benefits of generative AI with the electricity, infrastructure and environmental resources required to run it at massive scale.
Source: International Energy Agency (IEA)
Tomi Engdahl says:
In a closed loop it doesn’t drink the water it cycles in a loop. The initial fill is like a swimming pool. The water cycles so “used” is deceptive.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fact check:
“AI data centers require massive amounts of water for essential cooling systems.”
Partially true. There are data centers that use a lot of water and data centers that do not consume any water for cooling.
“As the global artificial intelligence boom accelerates, enormous data centers are expanding rapidly worldwide.”
Yes. The current “gold standard” for new AI data center installations in Europe is no water use or very little water use. Also the biggest hyperscalers in USA are following this trend.
“This infrastructure growth requires significant amounts of water for evaporative cooling systems,”
It does not necessarily need. Look what is happening for example in Finland and Sweden. Look at Google’s biggest AI data center in Europe – Google Hamina. Or Microsoft, Meta etc..
“sparking critical debates over prioritizing high-performance computing power over local water supplies.”
That debate seems to be mostly concentrated to USA, boosted by both grassroots organizations and Chinese social media propaganda. There are local water supply problems in many places. For whole USA and largest aqualifers the shortage of water is 99% caused by other reasons than data centers. At very local view data centers can be much bigger constrbutor on some areas.
“While supporters highlight technological progress, critics emphasize the potential strain on essential community natural resources in drought-prone areas.”
The strain on essential community natural resources in drought-prone areas is real. Data centers are a very small contributor to this issue. There are other bigger reasons for the problems. Even the golf courses in USA consume more water that all data centers in whole world.
#photography #AICooling #WaterCrisis
References for original claims:
Tech Environment: The Rising Demands of Global Data Centers and Water Infrastructure.
Eco Studies: Artificial Intelligence Expansion Faces Environmental and Local Resource Challenges.
Future Logistics: Balancing Computing Power and Community Natural Resources in Modern Infrastructure.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yes, older data centers used evaporative cooling which used inordinate amounts of water. Today, newer data centers can used closed cooling systems and their own power grid. Do your research, if someone is trying to put in a poorly designed data center fight that. If someone isn’t going to be paying taxes for 7-10 years after their money making data center is built fight that too!
But there keep in mind that they can build these data centers so that your community reaps the benefits of having tax dollars while not taking all of your water and being a blight on the local power grid.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C86jfQaFh/
Artificial intelligence systems rely on vast data centers filled with energy-intensive servers that generate substantial heat during the processing of prompts and generation of responses.
Cooling these facilities often involves water-based systems that evaporate significant volumes to dissipate heat, while additional water is consumed upstream in the electricity generation process powering the centers.
Early research focused on models like GPT-3 estimated that producing roughly ten to fifty medium-length responses could require the equivalent of a standard 500-milliliter bottle of freshwater, encompassing both on-site cooling and indirect water use tied to power production.
This calculation was later extrapolated in media coverage to a single 100-word output from more advanced systems such as GPT-4, yielding figures near half a liter depending on the data center location, local climate, grid efficiency, and cooling technology employed.
Variations arise because water intensity differs sharply by region—drier areas or those relying on thermal power plants demand more—while factors like server utilization and model size further influence totals.
Although individual prompts appear modest, the cumulative effect across billions of daily queries worldwide raises concerns about strain on local water resources, especially in drought-prone regions hosting hyperscale facilities.
Efficiency gains in newer hardware, improved cooling methods, and optimized models have reduced per-query estimates substantially in recent years, yet the broader environmental footprint of expanding AI infrastructure continues to warrant careful scrutiny and sustainable design practices.
Source: Li, P., Yang, J., Islam, M. A., & Ren, S. Making AI Less “Thirsty”: Uncovering and Addressing the Secret Water Footprint of AI Models. arXiv:2304.03271 (University of California, Riverside).
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C3c8a7sp3/
Clean water remains fundamental to human life as data centers expand the digital world. Modern facilities can use substantial water for cooling, while communities in water-stressed areas may already experience pressure on local supplies. This does not mean every data center endangers drinking water, but it shows why responsible planning, efficient cooling, water recycling, and thoughtful site selection matter. Researchers and environmental agencies are examining how growing computing demand may affect energy and water resources. Digital infrastructure can continue developing while protecting natural resources. The challenge is balancing technological progress with the needs of communities that rely on these resources.
#CleanWater #DataCenters #WaterConservation #SustainableTechnology
Sources
U.S. Department of Energy; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; International Energy Agency
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19e5dtZxpN/
New solar-powered machines using specialized materials known as metal organic frameworks, or MOFs, are able to harvest water from some of the driest air on Earth.
Startup Atoco, founded by a Nobel laureate, says the technology could address two of the biggest problems facing data centers today.
harvest water – for data centers. sure. it’s not like we have fresh drinking water problem globally ( ;
Yeah, they CAN do it, they just wont cause that costs more than desalinating ocean water. The process is PAINFULLY slow and ineffecient, and wont work if the air is dry and arrid, like where most of the datacenters are already. so this is just what it looks like… PROPAGANDA
These feel good stories may have worked 20 years ago, but newer generation have grown tired of hearing “Hope is just around the corner” just to be hit in the face with record temperatures, record inflation, and record housing prices together with record profits while wages stagnant.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19JctSwGpH/
Maailmalla, mm.jenkeissä jo nähneet massiivisten AI datakeskusten haittavaikutukset ja ovat alkaneet taistelemaan niiden rakentamisia vastaan.
Sähkön hinta nousi lupauksista huolimatta, lupauksista huolimatta pysyviä työpaikkoja ei tullut (automatisoidut salit, etäohjaus), ympäristövaikutukset, vaikutus pölyttäjiin, jatkuva 24/7 melu, joka häiritsee ihmisiä ja eläimiä. Asuntojen arvojen romahtaminen, sillä kukaan ei halua asua AI datakeskusten läheisyydessä. Juomaveden laadun heikkeneminen, koska keskukset käyttävät juomavettä viilennykseen ja kierrättävät veden takaisin luontoon. Hanasta tuleva vesi oli paikoin ruskeaa. Emme halua suomen luontoa tuhottavan ja metsiä hakattavan näiden takia.
Nykyhallituksen rahanahneus ei saa mennä suomen luonnon edelle.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Suomen tilanne: Suomessa ja Pohjoismaissa laitteistojen jäähdytyksessä hyödynnetään pääosin ilmaa tai suljettuja kiertojärjestelmiä.
Juomaveden haihduttamista ei käytetä Suomessa merkittävässä mittakaavassa.
Suomessa ei käytetä avointa haihduttavaa jäähdytystä (kuten haihdutustorneja tai vettä kuluttavia ilmankostutusjärjestelmiä) datakeskusten pääasiallisena jäähdytysmuotona.
Esimerkiksi Googlen Haminan datakeskus ei käytä juomavettä jäähdytykseen (vessat ja siivous vie eniten vettä). Lisäksi Suomessa vesivarat ovat huomattavasti runsaammat kuin monilla Yhdysvaltojen kuivilla alueilla.
En olisi huolissaan vedenkulutuksesta.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1C6JeZQz8k/
A Virginia data center just ran off diesel generators for 24 hours. Regulators could do nothing, as the fumes forced local residents to flee their homes.
When a critical power failure struck the Vantage Data Centers VA2 campus in Sterling, Virginia, the facility’s emergency backup diesel generators roared to life, running continuously for nearly 24 hours.
The sudden transition enveloped the surrounding residential neighborhood in deafening noise and thick diesel exhaust.
For local resident Greg Pirio, whose home sits just yards from the industrial facility, the impact was immediate and physical. Struggling to breathe as the fumes began ‘hurting my lungs’ during an already hazardous Code Red air quality day, Pirio was forced to pack up and flee his home to seek refuge at his daughter’s house.
Neighbors recorded noise levels reaching 60 decibels at their property lines, significantly exceeding the county’s nighttime limits.
The incident has ignited a fierce debate over the rapid expansion of ‘Data Center Alley’ and the lack of oversight protecting nearby communities. When Pirio filed a formal complaint, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality revealed it lacks the regulatory authority to stop the use of polluting backup generators during emergencies.
This stunning admission of regulatory helplessness has prompted local leaders to call for urgent legislative reform. As the demand for artificial intelligence and massive cloud storage continues to drive data center growth near residential zones, community advocates warn that public health and well-being are being sacrificed for tech company profits.
source: WUSA9. (2026). Virginia couldn’t stop Sterling data center’s 24-hour diesel generator use, regulator says. WUSA9 News.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17rvcbqNZe/
AI data centers are not just racks and chips. They run on transmission. In Georgia, utilities mapping new high‑voltage corridors have sparked a fight over eminent domain. Local reports point to about 30 homes and dozens of other parcels that could be taken or crossed to clear the route. The math is blunt: these sites draw massive loads, and moving that power means building or reinforcing lines from generators to new hubs. Those lines need corridors, and many of those corridors run across private land. The quieter footprint of the AI boom is an infrastructure sprint, from substations and new generation to hundreds of miles of wire. For people on the route, the question is how the costs of America’s AI rush get shared.