Nebraska data centers are required to turn in an annual report to Nebraska’s Department of Water, Energy, and Environment, but some state statutes are preventing the public from seeing just how much electricity and water data centers are using.
However, using a computer cursor to highlight the redacted text box in the report to DWEE, then copying and pasting it into a separate document reveals that Agate LLC is reporting 52.65 megawatts of electricity during peak electrical demand and 13.299 megagallons of water between cooling towers, evaporative systems and site operations in the last year. That totals out to 13 million gallons of water.
For context, 13 million gallons is enough to fill around 20 Olympic-size swimming pools, and is less than half of what the City of Lincoln reports using on Sept. 29.
The six data centers reporting as of Sept. 30 show a total use of 765 million gallons of water last year, enough water to fill 1,159.93 Olympic-size swimming pools.
I have to wonder if they keep water in the news because it’s pretty far down the list of problems that come with these technologies and the next generations will be closed loop cooling.
Ya, I was confused by this wording. Are they saying that the data centers usage for the entire year was less than 50% of the city’s usage on just 1 day of the year, or are they saying that the usage per day was a bit less than 50% of the city’s usage?
Why did you leave off the next paragraph?
That does not sound like a lot. Only 50’000 m³. Roughly as much as 250 households.
I have to wonder if they keep water in the news because it’s pretty far down the list of problems that come with these technologies and the next generations will be closed loop cooling.
Yeah this is weird. They use water for cooling and it goes into the ground and comes back to us. Water use may only matter in AZ and CA.
Ya, I was confused by this wording. Are they saying that the data centers usage for the entire year was less than 50% of the city’s usage on just 1 day of the year, or are they saying that the usage per day was a bit less than 50% of the city’s usage?