Story by insider@insider.com (Alistair Barr) • Yesterday
Sun City, Arizona. halbergman/Getty Images© Provided by Business Insider
Arizona is running out of water.
Governor Katie Hobbs plans to limit construction in and around Phoenix due to a lack of groundwater.
The area has several data centers that use lots of water. Google is planning yet another big one.
I fell in love in Arizona in the early 1990s. If I close my eyes, I can still see my girlfriend (now wife) hiking through the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix wearing a half top.
The other thing I remember is how damn hot and dry it was.
So it surprised me, years later, when I heard Google was planning a massive data center in Mesa, just east of Phoenix. The deal guaranteed Google 1 million gallons of water a day to cool the facility, and up to 4 million gallons a day if it hit project milestones. (That's a lot of water. Arizona residents each use about 146 gallons a day). I was an editor at Bloomberg at the time and we wrote about it here.
Since then, the Phoenix metro area has been dubbed "THE data center destination" by locals. Microsoft opened one in 2021 in Arizona. Meta is expanding its facility in Mesa.
These huge data centers use incredible amounts of water because the computing gear inside gets really hot when it processes all those YouTube videos, Zoom meetings, and mobile app sessions. Water is often used to cool the equipment.
Google has started disclosing data on this. In 2021, all the company's data centers consumed 4.34 billion gallons of water. That's so much, the company tried to put it all in context by comparing itself to that bastion of environmental stewardship: Golf courses. Google noted that 4.34 billion gallons are equivalent to the annual water footprint of 29 golf courses in the southwest US.
This brings us back to Arizona. The state is running out of water. A few weeks ago, the governor unveiled a plan to limit construction in areas around Phoenix after finding that the groundwater can't support the current pace of building.
There are many reasons for this. But these data centers have a part to play in Arizona's water shortage. And that doesn't even include Google's Mesa facility, which hasn't been finished yet. So more water will probably be sucked out of the state soon.
The governor's new limits exclude thousands of already approved developments, so Google will probably get its facility done if it wants it. I asked the company about this and it said the project is still alive. "While we do not have a confirmed timeline for development for the site, we want to ensure we have the option to grow further, should our business demand it," Google stated.
Why do big tech companies build data centers in the middle of a desert? It would be better to place them in colder areas that have more water, right?
Unfortunately, speed often trumps the environment here. Putting data centers close to large populations is more important. The closer you are to users, the faster your internet services respond. Faster means more usage, which means more digital ads and cloud services sold, and higher revenue.
The Phoenix metro area has 5 million residents and has been growing fast, so the data centers follow. Even if there's not enough water.
Google, Microsoft, and Meta are working to find more sustainable ways to cool their data centers. They are also spending real money and effort on water conservation projects. But there's only so much you can do to fight the reality of blisteringly hot, dry Arizona days.
Microsoft said in 2021 that its Arizona data centers would use "zero water" for cooling using adiabatic cooling, which uses outside air instead of water. That only works, though, when temperatures are below 85F. It's going to be 113F in Phoenix this weekend — a little too hot for a hike.
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