Can Wastewater Help Fuel AI Growth?

The continuous growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) is driving a proportional demand for data centers that can manage their substantial infrastructure requirements. This, in turn, presents a significant challenge: balancing the increasing need for computing resources with crucial sustainability goals, particularly regarding water usage. Data centers require substantial amounts of water to prevent their equipment from overheating, which can impact reliability and performance.

However, water scarcity concerns are becoming increasingly prominent in different parts of the world, including in several key regions of the UK. Anglian Water, which serves Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, and parts of Cambridgeshire, has struggled to provide enough water for large data centers in water-stressed areas. Regulations also limit how much drinking water can be used for such industrial purposes, including data centers. Cambridge Water has expressed similar concerns, stating they would support AI growth zones only if water could be supplied sustainably without impacting current customer supplies.

In response to these challenges, Anglian Water has proposed a bold solution: cooling large data centers with “treated sewage effluent” instead of drinking water. Geoff Darch, head of strategic asset planning at Anglian Water, recently told the BBC that companies looking to establish new data centers should be strategically locating them near water recycling plants to facilitate easier access to these alternative supplies.