Texas
Texas is quickly becoming a national hot spot for data centers, the physical infrastructure behind artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the modern digital economy. Their energy demand is already greatly cited, and some solutions are gaining steam; however, the unintended consequences of these data centers on Texas’ precious water resources have not yet been fully explored or understood.
Thirsty Data and the Lone Star State: The Impact of Data Center Growth on Texas’ Water Supply, a white paper written by Dr. Margaret Cook, Vice President of Water and Community Resilience, examines how current and projected data center growth will impact Texas’ current and future water resources. The analysis finds that existing and proposed data centers could place significant and growing pressure on the state’s already limited water supplies, pressure that is not fully reflected in current state water planning processes.
This white paper provides a roadmap for turning this challenge into an opportunity, providing practical recommendations such as requiring transparent reporting from data centers on their water and electricity use, incentivizing water-lean technologies onsite, and integrating forward-looking forecasting into the State’s Water Plan. These measures will allow Texas to accommodate the growing digital economy without compromising the reliability and affordability of resources for its residents.
Read Thirsty Data and the Lone Star State: The Impact of Data Center Growth on Texas’ Water Supply.
