Birbla

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Hacker News

Made this after getting curious how the water-use numbers thrown around in AI news articles actually stack up site-by-site. A few notes:

What it shows: a running estimate of global AI/data-center water use, a map of 30 real campuses (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, Apple, Alibaba) sized by estimated annual water draw, and a comparison chart against things like golf courses, fast fashion, and fossil fuel plants on a log scale.

Data sources: per-site figures are triangulated from sustainability reports, utility/permit filings, and known cooling tech + climate where companies don't disclose (most don't). The global baseline is anchored to Lawrence Berkeley National Lab's 2024 Data Center Energy Usage Report, linked in the site's Methodology section.

Tools: React + D3.js for the map, all client-side, no backend.

Caveat I want to be upfront about: these are order-of-magnitude estimates, not audited numbers, happy to take corrections if anyone has better sourcing on specific sites!

https://www.thirstymachines.com/

by senazadeh

These data centers need to be responsible for their own water (not other people's drinking water) and pay for or provide their own electricity (not force increases in other people's bills).

If they want "hand outs" and "welfare" from the state (aka subsidies and tax exemptions), then the state should partially own them or get a slice of any profits.

by baranul

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  • Hacker News
  • Made this after getting curious how the water-use numbers thrown around in AI news articles actually stack up site-by-site. A few notes:

    What it shows: a running estimate of global AI/data-center water use, a map of 30 real campuses (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, Apple, Alibaba) sized by estimated annual water draw, and a comparison chart against things like golf courses, fast fashion, and fossil fuel plants on a log scale.

    Data sources: per-site figures are triangulated from sustainability reports, utility/permit filings, and known cooling tech + climate where companies don't disclose (most don't). The global baseline is anchored to Lawrence Berkeley National Lab's 2024 Data Center Energy Usage Report, linked in the site's Methodology section.

    Tools: React + D3.js for the map, all client-side, no backend.

    Caveat I want to be upfront about: these are order-of-magnitude estimates, not audited numbers, happy to take corrections if anyone has better sourcing on specific sites!

    https://www.thirstymachines.com/

    by senazadeh
  • These data centers need to be responsible for their own water (not other people's drinking water) and pay for or provide their own electricity (not force increases in other people's bills).

    If they want "hand outs" and "welfare" from the state (aka subsidies and tax exemptions), then the state should partially own them or get a slice of any profits.

    by baranul
  • Metrics for this?

    OPS/FLOPS/TOPS/QOPS: OPS/kWhr, OPS/liter_water,

    From https://www.thegreengrid.org/ , whose board includes many industry folks:

    WUE: Water Usage Effectiveness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_usage_effectiveness

    GPUE: Green Power Usage Effectiveness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Power_Usage_Effectivenes...

    by westurner