Thread

Improper redaction reveals Google Data Center water and electricity usage

414 points · 548 comments · sensanaty

yeag123 · 1791176084 · focus · HN ↗
As other commenters have pointed out, 13.3 million gallons = ~40.8 acre-feet and this being Nebraska, the obvious comparison is agriculture (Corn and Soybeans being the main crop).
The average Nebraska farm is 989 acers[1] as of 2022 and uses roughly ~1,200 acre-feet of water (or roughly 390 million gallons) per year[2]. So a single average Nebraska farm uses roughly 30 times the water the Lincoln data center uses per year. There are 44,479 farms/ranches covering 44 million acres, which accounts for over 90% of the state's total land area.
Until I looked this up, I didn't appreciate the scale of water usage in farming (even in a state like Nebraska that gets a large amount of rainfall compared to Central or Southern California). I hope that the current data center environmental focus continues to shed light on our industrial water and electrical usage.
[1]<a href="http://farmflavor.com/nebraska/nebraska-crops-livestock/top-nebraska-agriculture-facts/" rel="nofollow">http://farmflavor.com/nebraska/nebraska-crops-livestock/top-... [2]<a href="https://cropwatch.unl.edu/2024/2023-irrigation-and-water-management-data-now-available/" rel="nofollow">https://cropwatch.unl.edu/2024/2023-irrigation-and-water-man...
1. lesostep · 1791189858 · focus · HN ↗
  The mass of plants growth is roughly the mass of water absorbed plus carbon from the atmosphere, minus water evaporated from leafs. The nutrients from the soil don't adhere to much.
  That's to say, farms basically convert water to food and CO2 to O2. I'd say this is the water well spent.
  1. IdiotSavage · 1791191304 · focus · HN ↗
    Certainly the vast majority of water is not absorbed by plants, but evaporates from the ground or drains off without being used. You can't just ignore that.
    groby_b · 1791191902 · focus · HN ↗
    What do you think happens to data center water? (It either evaporates or is recycled)
    quietbritishjim · 1791197773 · focus · HN ↗
    I would say that it's unlikely that much of it drains into the soil without being used at all. So vastly less inefficient than agriculture.
    givinguflac · 1791198997 · focus · HN ↗
    Yeah you’re right, feeding people is just a huge waste.
    murderfs · 1791201270 · focus · HN ↗
    Something like 1% of corn grown in the U.S. is used to feed people directly. The majority of it is used to inefficiently make gasoline (via ethanol) or plastic, because farm subsidies make it profitable.
    quietbritishjim · 1791201585 · focus · HN ↗
    I never said that. The comment I replied to seemed to imply that water used to grow crops is used very efficiently, or at least as efficiently as water used for data centers. That is clearly not true so I objected. That is all.

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