A quarter of the world's data centers sit in water-stressed areas, study finds

Of 9,347 data centers identified worldwide, 2,315, about 25%, sit where water demand exceeded renewable supply for at least one month a year under 2001–2010 conditions, and about 33% would under roughly 3°C of warming, according to a Carnegie Institution for Science-led study in Environmental Science & Technology, published online Sept. 24, per R&D World. In the U.S., which hosts 39% of the data centers counted, 764 of 3,619 (21%) are in water-scarce areas; the study measured exposure, not how much water each facility draws, which the authors could not obtain, and they wrote that the main risk may fall on other water users in the same basins rather than on the data centers. Only a few states, among them New Jersey, California and Utah, require data centers to report their water use, R&D World reported.