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Most data centers refusing to say how much water, electricity they use

216 points · 199 comments · Thom2503

  1. stingraycharles · · focus · HN ↗
    Playing the devil’s advocate: don’t “freedom of information” laws mostly apply to government agencies? If so, why would a private company provide this information?

    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.

    1. n4r9 · · focus · HN ↗
      > the water usage is heavily overblown compared to the agriculture industry

      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.

      1. thenthenthen · · focus · HN ↗
        Mmm most datacenters i went to were in the middle of nowhere, sharing land with farms (and oil/gas mining)
        1. n4r9 · · focus · HN ↗
          > we demonstrate that data centers are an overwhelmingly urban phenomenon, with 97.5% of facilities situated in metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas

          <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s44284-026-00487-z" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s44284-026-00487-z

          1. quickthrowman · · focus · HN ↗
            94% of the US population lives in a metropolitan or micropolitan area. There are ‘micropolitan’ areas in my state that’d I would colloquially consider rural, and there are large areas of the metropolitan area I live in that I would consider rural.
            1. n4r9 · · focus · HN ↗
              I don&#x27;t dispute your lived experience. But if you have evidence to cite in contrast to what I&#x27;ve cited, then please do so.
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