Multiple industry sources report that the average data center consumes between 3 and 5 million gallons of water daily, comparable to the daily water usage of a city of 30,000 to 50,000 inhabitants, a figure that could increase due to digital transformation and higher rack densities for applications such artificial intelligence (AI) and high performance compute (HPC). For this reason, water use efficiency (WUE) management is becoming increasingly crucial for data center operators.
For many years, data centers have prioritized energy efficiency. In some parts of Latin America, water scarcity requires water-efficient or water-free alternatives to traditional water-based cooling – especially for new data center builds.
Keys to reducing water consumption
WUE measures sustainability in terms of water use and its relationship to energy consumption. The average data center has a WUE of 1.8 L per 1 kWh, while those with a WUE of 0.2 L/kWh or less use less than 200 ml of water per kWh consumed by IT equipment. Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, has identified several strategies for reducing water consumption in data center cooling, including:
- Collect and analyze water use data: Implement a comprehensive management program that allows data center operators to identify water use and consumption, which involves measuring WUE.
- Adjust cooling systems to temperature and humidity conditions: By increasing the temperature and humidity in a data center within industry guidelines, the amount of heat that needs to be dissipated by the evaporative cooling process is reduced. This will allow for better energy and water savings.
- Replace legacy systems: Modern cooling systems and technologies are more efficient. Older equipment should be evaluated and upgraded to more efficient infrastructures.
- Use cooling systems that do not require water: Explore cooling systems that do not require water, or switch to water efficient systems. Vertiv estimates that its waterless cooling systems have saved billions of liters of water per year worldwide since their introduction in 2013. Each implementation saves nearly 30 million liters of water per year compared to water-based systems.
The Mexican Data Center Association (MEXDC) has identified a number of benefits that can be derived from making good use of water in data centers. These include savings on both water and energy consumption, reduced risk of downtime, and increased overall sustainability of the data center.
Water conservation challenges
To achieve these benefits, it is essential to measure WUE in conjunction with Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE). These metrics facilitate the evaluation of sustainability aspects of water, energy and carbon footprint, facilitating the path to reduce water consumption.
At Vertiv, our commitment to sustainability is a central theme. Our role is to provide technologies that allow the industry to operate with less environmental impact, more reliability and higher efficiency. In this context, many areas of the LATAM region require different technologies to make efficient use of these resources, such as:
- Free-cooling Vertiv™ Liebert® DSE, a waterless thermal management system, offers significant costs savings and increased economization hours. Additionally, each system saves approximately 6.75 million gallons of water per year.
- Free-cooling chillers, utilize a closed-circuit water system to achieve free-cooling with an extremely low amount of electrical energy consumption.
- Liquid cooling, is a key enabler of data-intensive technologies, such as artificial intelligence, but with less use of water, electricity and fuels consumption.
Learn more about how Vertiv supports our customers in achieving their sustainability goals here.
