EU Will Work on Setting Water Use Caps for Thirsty Data Centers

(Bloomberg) -- The European Union will work on setting minimum performance standards to curb water usage in data centers as the continent confronts potential shortages over the coming decades.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, will propose the measure by the end of 2026 as part of a scheme to make data centers, whose demand for water and energy is set to surge, more sustainable, according to a draft document seen by Bloomberg News.

“Key sectors for the EU’s strategic autonomy such as battery production, semiconductors, hydrogen, microchips and datacentres consume large volumes of (often ultra-pure) water,” a draft of the EU’s Water Resilience Strategy, which is due for publication next month, says. “There is a need to estimate the water consumption for current and future scenarios, and to anticipate possible negative impacts.”

The climate impact of data centers has been under scrutiny over the last decade, especially given the rise of Artificial Intelligence, which is far more power hungry than traditional computer tools. Such facilities also guzzle huge amounts of water in order to cool their servers and prevent them from overheating.

A data center requires about a 500-milliliter (17-ounce) bottle of water to generate 10 to 50 medium-length GPT-3 responses, according to one analysis. Images and video use far more. Globally, water demand will surpass what is available by 40% in 2030, according to a report by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water.

While Europe has more resources than other parts of the world to deal with possible shortages, it’s also set to be one of the fastest-warming continents. In recent years, droughts have wreaked havoc on nuclear power supplies in France and hampered trade along the Rhine river, one of the EU’s key arteries.

The draft strategy will also lay out a series of other measures to be taken in the coming years, including to incentivize farmers to use less water. Agriculture in Europe is currently responsible for around two thirds of the region’s water consumption. The plan will set out an aspirational target to reduce water abstraction by the end of the decade.

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