The drought “brings to the surface” the enormous water footprint of the internet and mobilizes the world

The amount of water that the internet machinery is drunk to mitigate the heat of its infrastructures is enormous, a problem that together with the drought has put many peoples on a war footing and has brought new solutions to refrigerate the servers: from taking them under the sea, to submerging them in mineral oils.

Although there are no exact figures for global digital water consumption, only the set of huge hyperscalar data centers, of which there are some 700 in the world, to which conventional ones must be added, could mean, according to estimates, around 420,000 million liters of water per year, the equivalent of a city of about 8 million inhabitants, such as New York.

With this panorama, companies have launched into the race in innovation to “look for alternatives” and solve the problem of the gigantic water footprint of the internet, which is added to the energy footprint, also enormous, as well as polluting when energy is not used. renewable.

This was explained by the Spanish architect Marina Otero, winner of the prestigious Harvard Wheelwright Prize for architects, as well as a graduate of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and Columbia University in New York, and former research director of the National Center for Architecture of Netherlands.

The focus at the moment is on the large technology companies in “the development of water recycling systems or the use of gray water”. Also in the construction of data centers in the ocean, where the coolness of the water cools the servers, added the expert.

US companies have already carried out de facto trials in that regard, while China would have large-scale plans to submerge data centers in the ocean, he has indicated.

“We don’t know how all this will affect the species; The heat from these facilities will raise sea temperatures punctually and locally”warned the architect.

Data centers are also being developed with servers submerged directly in mineral oils to keep their temperature constant. “The system works very well and extends the useful life of the servers”indicated.

“Data centers need stable temperatures to prevent servers from melting down due to overheating.”, said Otero, who in the framework of the Harvard Wheelwright Prize for architects will travel this year around the world to visit different models of Internet infrastructures and look for sustainability solutions.

In the United States, synthetic DNA molecules are also being investigated for data storage without the consumption of water or energy; there are also fledgling plans to one day move data centers into outer space, an already cold environment where infrastructures “They could be powered directly by solar energy.”

The data centersthey draw water from the network to cool and consume energy”; something similar, although in a very different order of magnitude, to what happens with air conditioners at home.

“People have to know -he affirmed- that mobile phone information does not float in the air; is stored in servers that run on water and power and emit a volume of CO2 higher than that of the aviation industry.

“Just as we turn off the tap or do not wash the towels daily in a hotel, that sustainable awareness should be transferred to the digital consumption of data; not only by part of the population but also by companies”he added.

In countries with little rainfall and prolonged droughts, such as those in the Mediterranean or South America, the enormous consumption of water in data centers “It is beginning to be a major problem”said.

“When there is a data center in a territory, it competes directly for water with nearby populations, and the same with energy,” continuous.

He referred to Spain, where it is expected that one of the great technology companies in the United States will soon build a mega data center in a territory where water is not abundant.

Competition between people and data centers for access to water is already provoking citizen protests, he warned.

For example, in Chile, the residents of a Santiago neighborhood have stopped a data center of one of the big US technology companies after demonstrating that “The installation would greatly reduce the water from the local aquifer and would leave the population almost without resources.”

Finally, the company has eventually dismissed “construction plans pending the development of cooling systems that allow the installation’s water consumption to be reduced”.

In contrast to hot countries, in the Nordic countries, such as Scandinavian countries, the climate is more favorable for cooling data centers as the thermal difference between the exterior and the interior is attenuated.

Despite the fact that water stress is less, they are highly innovative territories in sustainability and in the search for alternatives to reduce water and energy consumption.

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

Source: EFE