GASTER: Meeting the AI Water Challenge
The AI boom is increasing water and electricity demand for data centers, raising concerns despite relatively low overall consumption. This article proposes five principles for policymakers to manage water use effectively at the local level. These principles aim to improve transparency, focus reviews on local watersheds, set performance standards, integrate water-energy assessments, and standardize metrics to avoid bans and litigation.
The AI boom is exacerbating water and electricity demands for data centers, with facilities directly consuming 66 billion liters for cooling in 2023 and indirectly using 800 billion liters for electricity generation. While this represents a small fraction of overall U.S. water consumption, it has sparked community concerns and calls for data center moratoriums. Robin Gaster, president of Incumetrics Inc. and a visiting scholar at George Washington University, argues that policymakers should not panic or ban data centers due to these fears, but rather adopt effective solutions.
Gaster proposes five principles for local and state officials to manage water challenges. First, he emphasizes improving transparency by requiring large water users to report key metrics like withdrawals, consumption, and cooling technology, avoiding non-disclosure clauses. Second, review processes should focus on local watersheds, as exemplified by Minnesota and Ohio, with pre-application reviews to guide developers. Third, regulators should set performance standards, not technology mandates, to adapt to rapidly evolving cooling technologies and chip designs.
Fourth, Gaster advocates for integrated water-energy reviews, combining assessments of direct cooling water use and indirect water use for electricity generation, which accounts for over 90% of the total. State utility commissions, water agencies, and energy offices should collaborate on a common record for large data center projects. Finally, while local water capacity and use are distinct, the federal government should fund standardized metrics, leverage cloud procurement to encourage low-water technologies, and incorporate water implications into grid reliability analyses. Gaster concludes that an improved regulatory framework based on these principles would foster certainty for developers, provide communities with essential facts, and mitigate the risk of secrecy, suspicion, bans, and litigation.