Most data centers refusing to say how much water, electricity they use
Thread
Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.
Most data centers refusing to say how much water, electricity they use
Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.
stingraycharles · · focus · HN ↗
I personally believe at the very least the water usage is heavily overblown compared to the agriculture industry. Elecricity is a different issue, and governments should consider reporting requirements or something like that.
Being angry with datacenter providers is not the solution. And they also need to be built somewhere, and that place is probably best where electricity is abundant and/or cheap.
n4r9 · · focus · HN ↗
Data centers tend to concentrate their water usage within urban areas, causing a strain on local resources. The value of their output is much less tangible. Their water consumption scales up around tenfold if you consider the indirect usage from generating the electricity.
But on the other hand; yes, it would also help enormously if people ate less meat.
Aurornis · · focus · HN ↗
By “strain on local resources” are you just stating the fact that they use resources? Or are you trying to imply that it causes problems for those resources?
Companies don’t just buy land, connect to water and power, and then the utilities get caught off guard when the water system is suddenly strained by water going somewhere. There are processes for approving this before connection.
If a new project is causing a “strain on resources” then the utility planners have failed that community.
troyvit · · focus · HN ↗
Call it an echo chamber but when it comes to data centers that's the preponderance of news that I read. These two stories are about the county next door to mine. The first story highlights how the builders of the data-center continuously broke zoning laws. The second story from a month later describes how the board of commissioners let all that slide and approved construction to continue.
<a href="https://www.cpr.org/2026/08/07/weld-county-ai-data-center/" rel="nofollow">https://www.cpr.org/2026/08/07/weld-county-ai-data-center/ <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2026/09/10/weld-county-officials-approve-data-center/" rel="nofollow">https://www.cpr.org/2026/09/10/weld-county-officials-approve...
But it's not just my state:
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/25/new-jersey-fines-datacenter-unpermitted-generators" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/25/new-jers...
Those guys were fined a "record" $1.1 million, and:
> The state is mandating DataOne apply for and obtain the required permits or cease operations, but is giving the company 45 days to do so, according to a NJDEP spokesperson. During that time, regulators are allowing the facility to continue running the generators.
That fine is a slap in the wrist.