Comments on: How Clean is Your Cloud and Telecom?

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 06:11:29 +0000

The Key Takeaway: Solvable via Decarbonization
The fact that 92% of a data center’s water footprint is indirect highlights a major operational reality:
PPA Procurement: When a tech company executes a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for 100% wind or solar energy, they eliminate both their carbon emissions and their off-site water footprint simultaneously, as wind and solar photovoltaics require virtually zero water during operation.
Closed-Loop + Green Grid: A data center equipped with closed-loop dry cooling that buys renewable power drops its total water footprint (direct + indirect) by over 98%, demonstrating how site engineering and grid selection dictate environmental impact.

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 06:10:36 +0000

When including indirect water consumption (the water evaporated off-site at thermoelectric power plants to generate the grid electricity that powers data centers), the total footprint increases roughly 12-fold.

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 06:09:22 +0000

The claim’s conclusion is mostly right, with one key caveat:
Globally/Nationally: Water depletion from data centers is a complete non-issue compared to agriculture, power generation, and heavy manufacturing.
Locally: It remains a valid issue if developers build legacy evaporative facilities in water-stressed deserts instead of adopting zero-water closed-loop designs.

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 06:06:32 +0000

that’s 66B liters per year, or around 17B gallons per year. That’s out of 120 TRILLION gallons of water per year used in the US. So Data centers account for about 0.01% of US water usage, and could expand up to 0.02% by 2028.

When put in context, it is clear that water is a non-issue here

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 06:01:47 +0000

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19UjKKzAJa/

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has claimed that AI data centers “don’t use water” and dismissed concerns over their resource consumption, stating, “This is propaganda by our adversaries to try to slow us down.”

Speaking on CNBC, Lutnick added, “One of my favorite things is when people talk about data centers using water,” before arguing that “the No. 1 product in America that uses water is cattle.”

However, a 2024 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report estimated U.S. data centers consumed 66 billion liters of water in 2023, with hyperscale facilities alone projected to consume between 60 billion and 124 billion liters annually by 2028 as AI infrastructure expands.

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 06:01:55 +0000

The chinese are flooding social media with anti US AI center propaganda. the newer AI centers use closed loop cooling. even the older AI centers use far less water than farming or golf courses. Also the newer AI centers , have their own on site electric power plant, off the grid. The chinese will do anything to win the AI war to dominate the world economy and intelligence. they plan to monitor everybody’s private activities. and to limit our military ability to defend our country and allies. Don’t be duped!

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 06:01:37 +0000

Fact: Communist China is funding opposition to data centers in America. The Communists want to dominate us and fools are falling for it. There are thousands 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.

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 06:01:04 +0000

Brockovich Data Center Reporting – U.S. AI Data Center Awareness …
Interactive map of major AI data centers across the United States — operational, under construction, permitted, proposed and cancelled.
When the website officially launched, it went viral on social media and across news outlets, resulting in massive traffic spikes.
The ironies of an “anti-data-center website crashing due to excessive server traffic” became a widely shared meme across social tech forums.

Where is it hosted?
The site is hosted on standard commercial cloud web platforms using static site hosting and third-party mapping libraries:
Domain & Hosting: The standalone domain brockovichdatacenter.com relies on lightweight static web hosting (front-ended by modern Content Delivery Networks like Cloudflare to handle caching, mitigate traffic spikes, and prevent future downtime).

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 05:57:34 +0000

By: Tomi Engdahl

Tomi Engdahl — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 05:52:45 +0000

Direct On-Site Emissions (What Leaves the Building)

Thermal Energy (Low-Grade Heat):
Nearly 100% of the electricity entering a server is converted directly into heat.

Water Vapor (Only in Evaporative Facilities):
If the facility uses evaporative cooling towers, it emits massive plumes of pure water vapor (steam) into the atmosphere.
In closed-loop or dry-cooled facilities, water vapor emissions are zero.

Intermittent Diesel/Gas Generator Exhaust:
Data centers maintain large backup diesel (or natural gas) generators to ensure uptime if the main grid fails.
During normal operations, these sit idle. However, routine monthly testing or power outages result in brief emissions of standard combustion byproducts: CO2, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and fine particulate matter.

Refrigerant Micro-Leaks (Scope 1 Fugitive Emissions):
Chiller systems use synthetic refrigerants (hydrofluorocarbons or newer low-GWP hydrofluoroolefins). Minor leaks over time emit small volumes of these gases, which have high global warming potential if not properly recovered during maintenance.

Logically, a data center is essentially a massive, high-tech electric space heater. It emits warm air, some noise from fans, and—unless connected to a clean grid—drives power plant emissions elsewhere on the electrical network.