UK AI ambitions could lead to water shortages

Keir Starmer’s plan to make the UK a “world leader” in artificial intelligence (AI) can already be strained and expanding drinking water supply, industry sources told the BBC.

The huge data centers needed to power AI could require a large amount of water to prevent them from overheating.

The tech industry says it is developing more efficient cooling systems that use less water.

However, the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology said it was aware of the statement that it “faces sustainability challenges.” The government is committed to building multiple data centres across the country to begin economic growth.

The minister argues that famous power-hungry server farms will be given priority access to the power grid.

Questions have been raised about the impact this will have on the government’s clean energy production plans by 2030.

However, there is little attention paid to the impact of data centers on the supply of fresh, easy-to-drink water to homes and businesses.

Parts of the UK, particularly in the southern part, are already under threat of water shortages due to climate change and population growth.

The government supports nine new reservoir plans to mitigate the risk of rationing and the risk of banning Jose Pipe Pasting during the drought.

However, some of these are in areas where new data centers are set up to be built.

The government’s first “AI Growth Zone” is located on the UK Atomic Energy Agency campus in Calham, Oxfordshire. This is seven miles away from the location of the planned new reservoir in Abingdon.

The 4.5-square mile (7-square-kilometer) reservoir supplies customers in Thames Valley, London and Hampshire. It’s not clear how much water a large new data center planned nearby will be able to consume.

The BBC understands that Thames water is talking to the government about the challenges of water demand related to data centres and how it will be alleviated.

In a new report, the Royal Academy of Engineering is asking the government to ensure that tech companies can accurately report on the amount of energy and water used by data centers.

It also calls for environmental sustainability requirements for all data centers, including reducing drinking water use and moving to zero for cooling.

Without such actions, Professor Tom Rodden, one of the authors of the report, said, “The real risk that the development, deployment and use of AI could cause irreparable damage to the environment. It is facing it.”

The technology industry tends to be whimsical about water consumption. Most UK data centres contacted for this article did not respond to our inquiries.

Because the data center uses fresh main membrane water rather than surface water, the pipes, pumps and heat exchangers used to cool the server racks are not clogged with contaminants.

The amount used may vary widely depending on many factors, including the surrounding environment. Sites in the cold and wet areas of the world tend to need less.

Dr. Venkatesh Uddameri, a Texas-based water resource management expert, says a typical data center can use between 11 million and 19 million liters of water per day.

His widely cited calculations are based on arid or semi-arid climates and do not take into account the recent improvements or development of AI efficiency.

Microsoft’s global water use surged 34% while developing its first AI tool, and Iowa’s data center cluster is 6 of district water supply in one month during Openai’s GPT-4 training % was used.

Local resistance to data centers is growing worldwide, particularly in water-poor regions.

In Chile, Google has stopped building data centres following concerns about water use and, after local protests, redesigned another cooling system for another Uruguay protest.

In the UK, Thameswater is warning data centers that may face restrictions on use during heat waves.

In 2022, the company said it would consider using water in its data centers as it is ready to introduce a Hosepipe ban during the summer draft.

But Foxglove, a group of campaign lawyers, found evidence the following year that Thames Water’s strategy still appears to be unfamiliar with how much water is being used by customers in existing data centers.

Thames Water declined to comment. It signed the plan for the last five years approved by the government.

It states that there is no legal obligation to serve businesses and that they can choose to limit or reject water to commercial customers. However, this is written before the government designates data centers as a critical national infrastructure. This means fewer planning restrictions.

Thameswater challenged a planning application for a new data center in a cluster in Slough near Reading in 2021.

However, other proposals in the area have been successful. For example, in August 2024, Yong-dol announced that it would build a third data center campus.

Foxglove CEO Martha Dark said:

A government spokesman said, “We recognize that data centers face sustainability challenges such as energy demand and water use. As such, the AI ​​growth zone has already settled existing energy and water infrastructure. It is designed to attract investment in areas where it is.

Additionally, recent changes by the Water Regulator of Wat will “unlock £100 billion of spending by water companies” over the next five years.

The data center industry claims that modern sites are already more efficient. Alternative cooling methods that do not require much water, such as free air cooling and dry cooling, have evolved.

Closed-loop cooling, including water reuse, will be deployed in Microsoft’s new data centers in Phoenix and Wisconsin.

Aaron Binkley, Vice President of Sustainability at Digital Realty, acknowledged criticism of data center water use, but argued that the sector was making “significant advances.”

With 300 data centers around the world, his company is experimenting with new AI tools that analyze operational data and identify water-saving measures. He says it is projected to save about 4 million liters of water a year.

Obviously, that’s not reality, but expectations, but Binkley says, “I says it proves that AI can promote sustainability as well as technological advancement.

In 2024, the Environment Agency wrote in a blog that by 2050, 500 million liters of water will be needed every day in the UK alone.

However, regulators need more data to account for the future needs of new data centers.

For now, we are urging data centers to predict and plan water consumption and explore their own sources of water, such as water reuse.

“Meeting the increased water demand is not just a solution for the fisheries,” the source says.