Data centre water consumption

Abstract The information communication technology sector will experience huge growth over the coming years, with 29.3 billion devices expected online by 2030, up from 18.4 billion in 2018. To reliably support the online services used by these billions of users, data centres have been built around th...

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Autor principal: David Mytton
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Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2021
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/06d1d06402ae4521b35a9a9b2cb96233
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:06d1d06402ae4521b35a9a9b2cb962332021-12-02T14:03:44ZData centre water consumption10.1038/s41545-021-00101-w2059-7037https://doaj.org/article/06d1d06402ae4521b35a9a9b2cb962332021-02-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-021-00101-whttps://doaj.org/toc/2059-7037Abstract The information communication technology sector will experience huge growth over the coming years, with 29.3 billion devices expected online by 2030, up from 18.4 billion in 2018. To reliably support the online services used by these billions of users, data centres have been built around the world to provide the millions of servers they contain with access to power, cooling and internet connectivity. Whilst the energy consumption of these facilities regularly receives mainstream and academic coverage, analysis of their water consumption is scarce. Data centres consume water directly for cooling, in some cases 57% sourced from potable water, and indirectly through the water requirements of non-renewable electricity generation. Although in the USA, data centre water consumption (1.7 billion litres/day) is small compared to total water consumption (1218 billion litres/day), there are issues of transparency with less than a third of data centre operators measuring water consumption. This paper examines the water consumption of data centres, the measurement of that consumption, highlights the lack of data available to assess water efficiency, and discusses and where the industry is going in attempts to reduce future consumption.David MyttonNature PortfolioarticleWater supply for domestic and industrial purposesTD201-500ENnpj Clean Water, Vol 4, Iss 1, Pp 1-6 (2021)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Water supply for domestic and industrial purposes
TD201-500
spellingShingle Water supply for domestic and industrial purposes
TD201-500
David Mytton
Data centre water consumption
description Abstract The information communication technology sector will experience huge growth over the coming years, with 29.3 billion devices expected online by 2030, up from 18.4 billion in 2018. To reliably support the online services used by these billions of users, data centres have been built around the world to provide the millions of servers they contain with access to power, cooling and internet connectivity. Whilst the energy consumption of these facilities regularly receives mainstream and academic coverage, analysis of their water consumption is scarce. Data centres consume water directly for cooling, in some cases 57% sourced from potable water, and indirectly through the water requirements of non-renewable electricity generation. Although in the USA, data centre water consumption (1.7 billion litres/day) is small compared to total water consumption (1218 billion litres/day), there are issues of transparency with less than a third of data centre operators measuring water consumption. This paper examines the water consumption of data centres, the measurement of that consumption, highlights the lack of data available to assess water efficiency, and discusses and where the industry is going in attempts to reduce future consumption.
format article
author David Mytton
author_facet David Mytton
author_sort David Mytton
title Data centre water consumption
title_short Data centre water consumption
title_full Data centre water consumption
title_fullStr Data centre water consumption
title_full_unstemmed Data centre water consumption
title_sort data centre water consumption
publisher Nature Portfolio
publishDate 2021
url https://doaj.org/article/06d1d06402ae4521b35a9a9b2cb96233
work_keys_str_mv AT davidmytton datacentrewaterconsumption
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