As data center demand soars, Amazon expands use of recycled waste water to cool its cloud
Sustainability: News about the rapidly growing climate tech sector and other areas of innovation to protect our planet. SEE MORE
Amazon data center in the Portland, Ore., area in 2022. (AWS Photo / Noah Berger)
Amazon Web Services is more than halfway to its 2030 goal of being 'water positive' — meaning it replenishes more clean water than it uses. And supporting that effort is a newly announced initiative to expand its use of recycled waste water instead of drinking water to cool 120 of its U.S. data centers by the end of this decade.
AWS is wringing more water out of its cloud operations, marking a 40% improvement in its water use efficiency over the past three years. And it's 53% of the way toward becoming water positive, based on 2024 data — up from 41% from the year before.
'We're pretty proud of the fact that our global water use efficiency is really industry leading,' Kevin Miller, vice president of global data center operations for AWS, said in an interview.
The water challenge is driven by data centers containing servers that act as the backbone of the internet, powering increasingly popular artificial intelligence tools. The electronics produce intense heat that needs to be wicked away to keep the devices running properly, and cooling them requires a combination of energy and water use.
The issue has become increasingly urgent as Amazon and other cloud giants expand their thirsty data center operations worldwide. Bloomberg recently reported that nearly two-thirds of the U.S. data centers that were built or are under development in the past three years are located in water-stressed areas. Amazon alone plans to invest $100 billion in its data centers over a decade, which includes construction of new facilities.
Data center operators use a variety of cooling tech that include fans, air that's cooled using evaporated water, air conditioning, and direct liquid cooling. The strategies are a resource balancing act: air conditioning, for example, draws more electricity, but saves water, while cooling with evaporated water is less energy intensive, but sucks up water.
Amazon also has clean energy goals to meet, and since 2023 has matched 100% of its electricity consumption with the purchase of an equal amount of power produced by carbon-free sources.
PIpes carrying reclaimed water for cooling at an AWS data center. (AWS Photo)
Optimizing cooling
To keep its servers humming, AWS relies primarily on fans and evaporation-cooled air, depending on the location of the data center, the time of day, the weather and other factors. The moistened, cooled air is ultimately released from the building.
'We're constantly adjusting based on what's really going on throughout the day to keep it in the optimal cooling configuration, minimizing water usage,' Miller said.
Since 2019, AWS has used recycled water at some data centers in Virginia, which is a hub for server facilities. The company currently uses reclaimed water at 24 sites, including locations in California and Singapore. The new initiative will expand the practice to Georgia and Mississippi. Miller declined to say how many data centers AWS has in total, saying that 120 sites represents 'a meaningful share' of its operations.
The recycled water typically comes from sewage plants and has been treated but is not potable.
By 2030, AWS expects to avoid the consumption of more than 530 million gallons of drinking-water through its use of recycled water.
'Amazon is not only preserving precious drinking water supplies for communities but also demonstrating that water reuse is a viable, sustainable solution for water-intensive industries,' said Brian Biesemeyer, interim executive director of the WateReuse Association, in a statement.
To reach water positive, AWS is also investing in water storage efforts; the restoration of watersheds and wetlands that naturally replenish supplies; and the construction of water treatment systems.
While it's making progress, critics say the tally should also include the significant amounts of water consumed by some of the power plants that provide energy to AWS.
Racks of servers inside an AWS data center in 2023. (AWS Photo / Noah Berger)
Water innovation
AWS is on its sixth data center design and continues exploring ways to curb its water use, Miller said. That includes looking for leaks in pipes running to data centers. It's fine-tuning the material that the air flows through when it picks up the water to optimize the moisture in the air. AWS does dynamic models of the airflow within data centers for improved cooling.
Other companies are likewise innovating to reduce water use, including fellow Seattle-area cloud behemoth Microsoft.
Microsoft is using recycled water at sites in Washington, California, Texas and Singapore, and has designed a closed-loop cooling system, meaning it will need to be filled with water only once. It plans to deploy this approach in Wisconsin and Arizona next year. The company said it will use nominally more power than evaporation systems.
'The industry is committed to responsible water use,' said Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, by email. 'Data centers are actively investing in and deploying innovations, such as waterless cooling systems, closed-loop systems, and the use of recycled or reclaimed water.'
But Amazon remains out in front when considering water use efficiency (WUE), a measure developed by the nonprofit group The Green Grid to indicate how well the resource is being used relative to a data center's energy consumption.
Microsoft's WUE was 0.30 liters of water per kilowatt hour of power for its last fiscal year — which is a notable improvement over past performance. Amazon's WUE is half that amount, hitting 0.15 last year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNET
13 minutes ago
- CNET
Finally, I Found Something to Block All Those Annoying LED Lights on My Appliances
There's nothing more annoying than crawling into my cozy bed, turning off my smart lights and seeing a faint glow on the wall of what should be a pitch-black bedroom. The culprit is almost always some new device I'm testing out with an LED indicator light that shines brighter than a full moon. Whenever this happens, I trudge to the toolbox, grab my trusty roll of electrical tape and cut off a piece to haphazardly stick over the offending LED, sometimes two if it's especially bright. That was until recently, when I discovered the impossibly simple -- and cheap -- Jieheng LED light blocking and dimming stickers on Amazon. I don't know how I went so long without them. Here's why these stickers are so life-changing. What I love about these stickers These pre-cut stickers come in various shapes and sizes, which makes them ideal for covering indicator lights throughout my apartment. Of the two types of blackout stickers in the pack, I love the 50% dimming variant for smart home hubs, surge protectors and other devices where I occasionally need to check their operational status. They're great for taking the edge off the bright displays on some kitchen appliances. I've also doubled up stickers to increase the dimming effect on the worst offenders without blocking them entirely. I use the 100% blocking stickers on everything else, including a large green button on my laser printer. For years, I draped a thick piece of plastic over this button since tape would cause the button to stick. Now, a well-placed, perfectly sized blackout sticker turns the button into a tiny ring of light without affecting its movement. One of the biggest advantages of these Jieheng stickers is that they come in black and white colors, so you can match them to your device. I've seen a few brands selling multiple colors, including silver. Most competitors sell the stickers in black only, or they sell the white stickers separately. There are many simple ways to improve your sleep just like this. For more ideas, read our editor's advice for using smart lights to get better sleep or check out our complete list of expert-recommended tips for boosting sleep quality. And to see some of the products we've personally tested, find our editor-curated lists of the best sleep trackers, best earplugs for sleeping or best headphones for sleeping.
E&E News
13 minutes ago
- E&E News
White House reviewing NEPA plans across agencies
The White House is reviewing proposed rules from a host of federal agencies that would dictate how the government implements the National Environmental Policy Act, the nation's magna carta of environmental laws. The Office of Management and Budget received proposed interim final rules from agencies including the departments of Energy, Interior and Defense, and one final rule from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for NEPA 'implementing procedures,' according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs dashboard. The reviews mark another step in the Trump administration's bid to overhaul how the federal government conducts environmental reviews at a quick pace, a move that's drawing criticism from environmental groups. Advertisement In February, the Trump White House scrapped decades' worth of rules at the Council on Environmental Quality that governed how agencies conduct reviews under NEPA for power plants, pipelines and other energy projects. In its place, the administration offered up voluntary guidance that legal experts noted was light on details.
New York Times
15 minutes ago
- New York Times
Bloomberg Gives $5 Million to Pro-Cuomo Super PAC as Primary Nears
Three days after endorsing Andrew M. Cuomo for mayor of New York City, Michael R. Bloomberg put his money where his mouth is. On Friday, Mr. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor, gave $5 million to Fix the City, a super PAC that is supporting Mr. Cuomo's bid for mayor, according to a person familiar with the donation. That brings the PAC's haul to roughly $20 million. Even before this donation, it was the biggest super PAC in New York City history. The new infusion of resources will amplify the PAC's ability to target Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist candidate now perceived as Mr. Cuomo's main target in the June 24 Democratic primary. Before Mr. Bloomberg's donation, the PAC had raised roughly $15 million, according to a spokeswoman, and spent about $9 million, much of it on advertising seeking to draw a contrast between a purportedly can-do Mr. Cuomo, 67, and Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman from Queens who is described in the ads as a 'risk.' The donations came the day after an apparently draft piece of PAC campaign literature was leaked to a reporter showing an altered photo of Mr. Mamdani that made his beard appear thicker and darker, next to language suggesting he was anti-Jewish. The PAC said it rejected the proposed literature and that it was never sent out. Mr. Mamdani, who is a Muslim, described the literature as Islamophobic. Mr. Bloomberg's donation will allow Mr. Cuomo's allies to flood the airwaves just as early voting begins on Saturday. Some of his rivals have super PACs, though none have raised anywhere close to even Mr. Bloomberg's individual contribution. New Yorkers for Lower Costs, a super PAC created to support Mr. Mamdani, has reported raising $400,000. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
