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Amazon’s data centers tapped 2.5 billion gallons of water last year
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Amazon finally released annual water usage data and claims it’s more efficient than the others.
Key facts
- Amazon says that “about 90 percent of the time” its data centers use air cooling, and uses evaporative water cooling on “the hottest hours of the hottest days,” while also raising its servers
- Amazon finally released annual water usage data and claims it’s more efficient than the others
- After Seattle enacted a one-year data center moratorium that some of Amazon’s own employees pushed for, Amazon shared how much water its data centers use, reportedly for the first time
- Amazon also claims it’s using water more efficiently than some Big Tech rivals, this graphic in Amazon’s report points to Microsoft, Google, and Meta data showing each using more water per
Summary
After Seattle enacted a one-year data center moratorium that some of Amazon’s own employees pushed for, Amazon shared how much water its data centers use, reportedly for the first time. Amazon also claims it’s using water more efficiently than some Big Tech rivals, this graphic in Amazon’s report points to Microsoft, Google, and Meta data showing each using more water per kilowatt-hour than Amazon did over the past few years. Google by far used the most; however, it appears the data cited is focused specifically on Gemini AI datacenters, while Amazon is reporting on all of its operations. Amazon says that “about 90 percent of the time” its data centers use air cooling, and uses evaporative water cooling on “the hottest hours of the hottest days,” while also raising its servers’ tolerances for heat.