With some communities pushing back against proposed data centers over concerns tied to water use, data center developers and others are working to tap technologies that will help to minimize the use of water to cool data center facilities.
A medium-sized data center can consume up to roughly 110 million gallons of water per year for cooling purposes, equivalent to the annual water usage of approximately 1,000 households, the Environmental and Energy Institute noted in June.
A report from Data Center Watch said that $64 billion in U.S. data center projects “have been blocked or delayed by a growing wave of local, bipartisan opposition.” The research timeline was May 2024-March 2025.
publicpower.org
by Paul Ciampoli
January 11, 2026