How some data center operators are tackling their water use problems
How some data center operators are tackling their water use problems
一些数据中心运营商如何应对用水问题
On Monday, SpaceX amended its initial public offering to state that water conditions—including water scarcity, regulations around water, and drought—could constrain data center development. It isn’t the only tech company trying to assess how water scarcity might impact its business. 周一，SpaceX 修改了其首次公开募股（IPO）文件，指出水资源状况——包括缺水、水资源相关法规以及干旱——可能会限制数据中心的开发。它并不是唯一一家试图评估缺水可能如何影响其业务的科技公司。
Water use is emerging as one of the most contentious data center issues. A recent Gallup poll found that seven out of 10 Americans are opposed to data center development, with water scarcity ranking as the top resource concern. Facing increasingly fierce resistance, some tech companies are scrambling to assure the public that they’re facing the issue head-on. 用水问题正成为数据中心最具争议的话题之一。盖洛普（Gallup）最近的一项民意调查发现，十分之七的美国人反对数据中心开发，其中水资源短缺被列为首要资源担忧。面对日益激烈的抵制，一些科技公司正忙于向公众保证，他们正在直面这一问题。
Data centers primarily use water to cool server racks, which throw off massive amounts of heat. One popular technique, known as evaporative cooling, uses fresh water to absorb the heat, which is then pumped to cooling towers where it evaporates outside. Using more water can save money and reduce emissions for big tech companies by reducing the power needed for cooling that relies on energy-intensive pumps to recirculate water. 数据中心主要利用水来冷却服务器机架，因为机架会产生大量的热量。一种流行的技术被称为“蒸发冷却”，即利用淡水吸收热量，然后将其泵送到冷却塔中，在室外蒸发。对于大型科技公司而言，使用更多的水可以节省资金并减少排放，因为它减少了冷却过程对能源密集型水循环泵的依赖。
But it can also come with a large water footprint: Google’s facility in Council Bluffs, Iowa, for instance, which uses evaporative cooling, consumed more than 1 billion gallons in 2024. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory predicted in a 2024 report that hyperscale data centers could consume up to 33 billion gallons of water by 2030 if they relied heavily on evaporative cooling. 但这也会带来巨大的水足迹：例如，谷歌位于爱荷华州康瑟尔布拉夫斯（Council Bluffs）的设施采用了蒸发冷却技术，2024 年的耗水量超过了 10 亿加仑。劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室在 2024 年的一份报告中预测，如果超大规模数据中心严重依赖蒸发冷却，到 2030 年其耗水量可能高达 330 亿加仑。
That’s on par or even less than other thirsty industries, like agriculture or oil and gas—a single fracked well can use 1.5 to 16 million gallons of water—but it poses a risk in regions where water is already scarce. The risk is particularly acute in summer, when data center cooling needs tend to skyrocket at the same time as municipal water use. 这与其他高耗水行业（如农业或石油天然气行业）相当，甚至更低——单口水力压裂井的用水量就可达 150 万至 1600 万加仑——但在水资源本已匮乏的地区，这构成了风险。这种风险在夏季尤为突出，因为此时数据中心的冷却需求往往与市政用水需求同时激增。
“Water is a highly local, highly regional issue,” says Shaolei Ren, a professor of engineering at UC Riverside. “It’s a limited resource, and we have to manage it very carefully.” “水是一个高度本地化、高度区域性的问题，”加州大学河滨分校工程学教授任绍雷（Shaolei Ren，音译）表示，“这是一种有限的资源，我们必须非常谨慎地管理它。”
Some tech giants, including Microsoft, OpenAI, and Oracle, have made statements in recent months indicating that they are moving away from evaporative cooling entirely in order to save water. That includes OpenAI and Oracle’s massive Stargate expansion in a number of states, including a water-stressed region of Texas. 包括微软、OpenAI 和甲骨文（Oracle）在内的一些科技巨头近几个月发表声明称，为了节约用水，他们正在完全放弃蒸发冷却技术。这包括 OpenAI 和甲骨文在多个州（包括德克萨斯州一个缺水地区）进行的名为“星际之门”（Stargate）的大规模扩张项目。
Google is taking a different approach. On Wednesday, the company rolled out a series of water-related commitments to communities where it has data centers, along with funding announcements for water-related projects in the US. They include pledges to replenish more freshwater than the company consumes, via investments in local water projects; to scale up the use of reclaimed and recycled water; and to disclose annual water use in data centers. 谷歌则采取了不同的策略。周三，该公司向其设有数据中心的社区推出了一系列与水相关的承诺，并宣布了对美国水相关项目的资助计划。这些承诺包括：通过投资当地水项目，实现淡水回补量超过公司消耗量；扩大再生水和循环水的使用；以及披露数据中心的年度用水量。
(Other tech companies, including Microsoft, have similar promises around water replenishment and local investment. Google has been working on most of these pledges for a few years.) （包括微软在内的其他科技公司也有类似的关于水回补和本地投资的承诺。谷歌在过去几年里一直在推进其中的大部分承诺。）
There’s also a promise to use “a data-driven framework” to decide what data center designs would work best with local watersheds. Ben Townsend, the global head of infrastructure and sustainability at Google, says that data center design is a lot more complicated than simply swearing off one type of cooling in all cases. The company, he says, has been doing detailed hydrologic assessments of its sites for the past four years to determine what types of cooling would work best. “Water is scarce in some regions and plentiful in others,” he says. “A one-size-fits-all strategy just doesn’t work.” 谷歌还承诺使用“数据驱动的框架”来决定哪种数据中心设计最适合当地流域。谷歌全球基础设施与可持续发展主管本·汤森（Ben Townsend）表示，数据中心的设计远比在所有情况下简单地放弃某种冷却方式要复杂得多。他说，过去四年来，公司一直在对其选址进行详细的水文评估，以确定哪种冷却方式效果最好。“有些地区缺水，有些地区水资源丰富，”他说，“‘一刀切’的策略根本行不通。”
In April, Google defended evaporative cooling for areas with what it called “abundant” water in a filing to the European Union as necessary for developing truly sustainable data centers. Google’s arguments line up with new research from Ren and his team, who found that if all data centers in the US were to adopt some kind of evaporative cooling during peak demand, it could free up an additional 10 to 30 gigawatts of power. 今年 4 月，谷歌在提交给欧盟的一份文件中为“水资源丰富”地区的蒸发冷却技术进行了辩护，称其对于开发真正可持续的数据中心是必要的。谷歌的论点与任绍雷及其团队的最新研究不谋而合，该研究发现，如果美国所有数据中心在高峰需求期间都采用某种形式的蒸发冷却，可以额外释放 10 到 30 吉瓦的电力。
In areas where grids are stressed but water resources aren’t, using evaporative cooling could provide a meaningful headroom to utilities trying to balance load. “If you don’t use water, the challenge is that you’re going to be using a lot more power in the summer, and that will push up the cost,” Ren says. 在电网紧张但水资源充足的地区，使用蒸发冷却可以为试图平衡负载的公用事业公司提供有意义的缓冲空间。“如果你不用水，挑战在于你在夏季将消耗更多的电力，这会推高成本，”任绍雷说。
Most tech giants, including Google, have seen their carbon emissions skyrocket as a result of the AI boom. Totally avoiding evaporative cooling could increase emissions if data centers rely on dirty energy to keep facilities cool. Using less evaporative cooling could also mean more water used offsite for electric generation, depending on how data centers are getting their electricity. 由于人工智能的繁荣，包括谷歌在内的大多数科技巨头的碳排放量都出现了激增。如果数据中心依赖肮脏能源来维持设施冷却，完全避免蒸发冷却可能会增加排放。减少蒸发冷却的使用也可能意味着在场外发电时需要消耗更多的水，具体取决于数据中心获取电力的方式。
Despite efforts to curb water use, tech companies are still struggling to do so—and it could eventually impact business. Even as Microsoft is moving away from evaporative cooling, The New York Times reported in February that the company’s internal records indicate that its water use is set to skyrocket. 尽管科技公司努力控制用水，但仍面临困难，这最终可能会影响业务。尽管微软正在放弃蒸发冷却技术，《纽约时报》在 2 月份报道称，该公司的内部记录显示其用水量即将激增。
In 2024, Google halted plans for a data center outside of Santiago, Chile, after a court partially revoked its permits over water concerns. (The permits for that data center were granted in 2020; Townsend says the company adopted its water scarcity framework for new locations a few years after that.) 2024 年，在法院因水资源担忧部分撤销了其许可后，谷歌暂停了在智利圣地亚哥郊外建设数据中心的计划。（该数据中心的许可于 2020 年获得；汤森表示，公司是在那之后几年才为新选址采用了水资源短缺评估框架。）
In 2021, Google funded a lawsuit filed by a town in Oregon fighting a local newspaper to avoid disclosing how much water the tech giant would use for an expansion of its existing data center. The company began disclosing water use from specific data centers in annual reports in 2023. 2021 年，谷歌资助了俄勒冈州一个小镇提起的诉讼，该镇与当地一家报纸对簿公堂，旨在避免披露这家科技巨头在扩建现有数据中心时将消耗多少水。该公司于 2023 年开始在年度报告中披露特定数据中心的用水量。
Priscilla Johnson, an independent consultant who served as Microsoft’s director of water strategy between 2017 and 2020, agrees with Ren that there’s trade-offs between water and power. However, she says, there are ways to push companies to develop better designs that use both less water and energy. 曾于 2017 年至 2020 年担任微软水资源战略总监的独立顾问普里西拉·约翰逊（Priscilla Johnson）同意任绍雷的观点，即水和电之间存在权衡。然而，她表示，仍有办法推动公司开发出既能减少用水又能减少用能的更好设计。