Study Highlights Challenges in Tracking Data Centers' Water Use in the West
A study led by the University of Illinois reveals difficulties in tracking water use by data centers, particularly in the drought-prone Western U.S. Data centers rely on water to cool computer servers, but information on their total water use is often not publicly available. Researchers estimate that U.S. data centers used about 17 billion gallons of water in 2023, with demand expected to rise due to growth in artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The lack of transparency poses challenges for communities in water-stressed areas like Nevada and Arizona, where new data centers are being built. 
