The water use of data center workloads: A review and assessment of key determinants

Journal Article · Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 UTC 2025 · Resources, Conservation and Recycling

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2025.108310 · OSTI ID:2572888

Lei, Nuoa; Lu, Jun; Shehabi, Arman; Masanet, Eric

The global importance of data center water use is increasing with the rapid growth of digitalization and artificial intelligence. This study analyzes the factors influencing workload-level water use, measured in liters consumed per workload, to guide water-saving strategies in data centers. Our findings reveal workload-level water use variations exceeding 10,000-fold, driven by over 1000-fold differences in water consumption per kilowatt hour of server electricity consumed and approximately 10-fold differences in server workload efficiency. Key determinants are ranked as server efficiency, electrical grid water consumption factors, server utilization, cooling system type, infrastructure efficiency, climate zone, inactive server percentage, and server refresh cycle. Notably, there is no single recipe for minimizing water use; instead, optimal outcomes depend on tailored combinations of these factors. This analysis addresses critical knowledge gaps by identifying the determinants of data center water use and exploring their achievable minima under diverse site-specific constraints.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23), Climate and Environmental Sciences Division (SC-23.1 )
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 2572888
• Journal Information: Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Journal Name: Resources, Conservation and Recycling Vol. 219
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English