The German federal government aims to double the capacity of data centers in Germany by 2030—a goal that has prompted a study to warn of growing conflicts over high water consumption. The environmental organization Greenpeace stated on Friday that, by 2030, data centers in Germany could require 27 billion liters of water annually for cooling, up from the current figure of approximately 13 billion liters. The trend toward increasingly large facilities is exacerbating local “water stress.”
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Data centers utilize large numbers of high-performance computers to store data or provide the processing power and computational capacity required for countless digital services—such as those involving artificial intelligence (AI). At the same time, the immense electricity consumption and water usage of these facilities have sparked debate regarding their environmental impact. In the United States, the expansion of data centers—supported by President Donald Trump—became a key issue during the congressional elections, in which Trump’s Republican Party suffered a major defeat.
According to a study conducted by the Oeko-Institut for Greenpeace, nearly 30 massive data centers—each with a server capacity exceeding 100 megawatts—are currently planned for Germany. Greenpeace stated that, depending on the cooling technology employed, the annual water requirement for these facilities is estimated to be between 200 and 930 million liters. The approximately 13 billion liters consumed last year are, therefore, equivalent to the drinking water needs of a large city with a population of 275,000.
Consequently, only cooling systems with fully closed-loop circuits can reduce a data center’s water consumption to zero. According to Greenpeace, however, about one-third of the roughly 1,200 data center operators currently in Germany use evaporative cooling systems during the summer months. In this process, the drinking water used escapes into the atmosphere as water vapor, becoming unavailable to the local water cycle or for household supply. “People living near a data center have legitimate concerns about their quality of life, the drying up of wells, and rising water and electricity costs,” stated Linda Klapdor of Greenpeace.
In the future, significantly more people in Germany may find such facilities in their neighborhoods: the federal government aims to double computing capacity by 2030 and is therefore accelerating expansion—a goal set out in its data center strategy. According to the digital industry association Bitkom, there are currently well over 2,000 data centers in Germany, each with a connected load exceeding 100 kilowatts.
The Bitkom study indicates that investments in data centers rose by 57 percent, reaching a record high of 23.5 billion euros. Nevertheless, the association suggests that Germany might fall short of the federal government’s expansion targets. Hesse is by far the largest hub, followed by Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia.
Greenpeace has demanded that, in water-scarce regions, data centers should only be permitted to go online if they utilize closed-loop water systems. Furthermore, the electricity used to operate these data centers must be sourced from renewable energy.
In a study published on Tuesday, the industry association Bitkom notes progress regarding water efficiency in German data centers. According to Bitkom President Wintergerst, it is “in the operators’ own interest to keep the resource consumption of their data centers as low as possible.” However, the study indicates that the energy demand of these facilities continues to rise alongside the growing need for computing power, even as the centers themselves become more efficient.
Greenpeace has also criticized data center operators for only “incompletely” fulfilling their obligation to report water consumption. Furthermore, the organization points out that there is no systematic monitoring of missing data, nor are there any binding upper limits on consumption. “Even in the latest progress report from the Federal Government’s Digital Summit, there are no metrics regarding energy, water, or waste heat in relation to the planned fourfold increase in AI computing capacity,” the environmental group noted.
An analysis by the data journalism team at the broadcaster SWR reaches a similar conclusion. As reported by tagesschau.de, inquiries and research involving around 30 of the largest operators in Germany suggest that more than half are “likely failing” to meet their legal obligation—as mandated by the Energy Efficiency Act—to disclose the electricity and water consumption of their major data centers. In many cases, such information cannot be found online, and many operators either failed to respond to inquiries or declined to comment.
Author: AFP – oer/ilo
Sources: AFP Press Portal