Data Centres and the Cloud
Cooling and Water
How data centres use water for cooling, why this matters in water-stressed Indian cities, and newer cooling technologies that save water.
Servers produce heat that must be removed.
Cooling methods
- Air cooling with fans and chillers.
- Evaporative cooling, which uses water.
- Liquid cooling, where coolant flows near chips, increasingly used for AI servers.
Water use
- Evaporative systems can use large amounts of water.
- In water-stressed cities like Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, this raises concerns.
Trade-off
- Water-based cooling can use less electricity.
- Air-based cooling uses less water but more power.
Solutions
- Recycled or treated wastewater.
- Closed-loop systems that reuse water.
- Liquid and immersion cooling.
Measurement
Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) measures litres of water per unit of IT energy.
Location
Cooler, water-rich locations reduce cooling costs, but must balance with connectivity and customers.
The treated water
A data centre in Chennai uses treated sewage water for cooling instead of drawing on the city's scarce freshwater supply.
Thinking data centres only need electricity
Many also use significant water for cooling.
Key takeaways
- Data centres use air, evaporative or liquid cooling.
- Evaporative cooling uses much water.
- Water-stressed Indian cities raise concerns.
- Recycled water and liquid cooling help.
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