Internet machines consume as much water as a city of 8 million people

While there are no exact figures for global digital water consumption, the colossal cluster of hyperscalar data centers, of which there are only about 700 in the world, according to estimates, to which the traditional ones should be added, could mean approximately: 420,000 million liters of water per year is equivalent to a city of 8 million people like New York.

With this panorama companies entered the innovation race to “search for alternatives” and it solves the huge water footprint problem of the internet, which pollutes the environment when renewable energies are not used and also adds to the huge energy footprint.

This was explained to Efe by architect Marina Otero, winner of the prestigious Harvard Wheelwright Award for architects, a graduate of Polytechnic University (UPM) and Columbia University in New York, and former research director at National. The center of Dutch architecture.

Alternatively, submerge them in the ocean

Right now the focus is on big tech companies “around the world”. development of water recycling systems or use of gray water“. Also in the making data centers in the oceanThe expert explained that the coolness of the water is where it cools the servers.

He noted that China will have large-scale plans to submerge its data centers in the ocean, while US companies are conducting actual trials in this regard.

“We don’t know how all this will affect the species; The heat from these facilities will raise sea temperatures in a timely manner and locally.“The architect warns.

Data centers with servers are also being developed dipped directly in mineral oils to keep the temperature constant. “The system works very well and extends the lifetime of the servers,” he added.

“Data centers need stable temperatures to prevent servers from melting due to overheating,” said Otero, who will travel the world this year to visit different models of Internet infrastructure and search for sustainability solutions, as part of the Harvard Wheelwright Architects Award. .

Synthetic DNA molecules are also being explored in the United States to store data without the consumption of water or energy; There are also beginner plans that consider the idea. one day move data centers into space, already a cold environment where infrastructures can be “directly powered by solar energy”.

Data centers “pull water from the network to cool and consume energy”“It’s something similar to what happens in home air conditioners, though in a very different order of magnitude.

“People should know,” he said, “that this mobile phone information does not fly in the air; stored on water-powered servers and emits higher volumes of CO2 than the energy and aerospace industries”.

Just as we do not turn off the tap or wash the towels every day in a hotel, this sustainable awareness needs to be transferred to digital data consumption not only by the population but also by companies.”

In countries with little rainfall and prolonged drought, such as the Mediterranean or South America, the massive water consumption in data centers “is starting to become a big problem,” he said.

“When there is a data center in a region, it competes directly with the nearby population for water.and the same for energy,” he continues.

New mega data center in Spain despite drought

He referred to Spain, where one of the big tech companies is expected. US to build a mega data center soon in an area where water is not plentiful.

Competition between people and data centers for access to water is already starting to protest citizens, he warned.

For example, Residents of a Santiago neighborhood in Chile shut down a data center One of the major U.S. tech companies, after demonstrating that “the installation would drastically reduce water in the local aquifer and leave the population virtually resourceless.”

Finally, the company eventually rejected “construction plans pending the development of cooling systems that reduce the plant’s water consumption.”

Unlike warm countries, the climate is more favorable in Scandinavian countries such as the Scandinavians. to cooling data centers by reducing the thermal difference between the exterior and interior.

Despite having less water stress, they are highly innovative regions in terms of sustainability and the search for alternatives to reduce water and energy consumption.

In cities like Stockholm, the enormous heat from data centers is reused and distributed in the form of city heating, and there are projects that “recycle” the thermal impact of digital infrastructures to heat greenhouses where vegetables are grown and species are grown.

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To contact From the environment department: crisisclimatica@prensaiberica.es