Concern the UK’s AI ambitions could lead to water shortages

Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to make the UK a “world chief” in Synthetic Intelligence (AI) might put already stretched provides of consuming water beneath pressure, business sources have advised the BBC.

The enormous knowledge centres wanted to energy AI can require massive portions of water to forestall them from overheating.

The tech business says it’s growing extra environment friendly cooling methods that use much less water.

However the division for science, innovation and know-how mentioned in a press release it recognised the vegetation “face sustainability challenges”.

The federal government has dedicated to the development of a number of knowledge centres across the nation in an effort to kick begin financial development.

Ministers insist the notoriously power-hungry server farms shall be given precedence entry to the electrical energy grid.

Questions have been raised concerning the impression this might need on the federal government’s plans for clear power manufacturing by 2030.

However much less consideration has been given to the impression knowledge centres might have on the availability of recent, drinkable water to properties and companies.

Components of the UK, within the south particularly, are already beneath risk of water shortages due to local weather change and inhabitants development.

The federal government is backing plans for 9 new reservoirs to ease the danger of rationing and hosepipe bans throughout droughts.

However a few of these are in areas the place new knowledge centres are set to be constructed.

The primary of the federal government’s “AI development zones” shall be in Culham, Oxfordshire, on the UK Atomic Vitality Authority’s campus – seven miles from the positioning of a deliberate new reservoir at Abingdon.

The 4.5 sq mile (7 sq km) reservoir will provide prospects within the Thames Valley, London and Hampshire. It isn’t identified how a lot water the huge new knowledge centres now deliberate close by might take from it.

The BBC understands Thames Water has been speaking to the federal government concerning the problem of water demand in relation to knowledge centres and the way it may be mitigated.

In a brand new report, the Royal Academy of Engineering calls on the federal government to make sure tech firms precisely report how a lot power and water their knowledge centres are utilizing.

It additionally requires environmental sustainability necessities for all knowledge centres, together with lowering using consuming water, transferring to zero use for cooling.

With out such motion, warns one of many report’s authors, Prof Tom Rodden, “we face an actual danger that our improvement, deployment and use of AI might do irreparable injury to the atmosphere”.

The tech business tends to be cagey about water consumption. Most UK knowledge centres contacted for this text didn’t reply to our inquiries.

Knowledge centres use recent, mains water, reasonably than floor water, in order that the pipes, pumps and warmth exchangers used to chill racks of servers don’t get clogged up with contaminants.

The quantity used can fluctuate significantly relying on numerous components together with the encompassing atmosphere; websites in colder, wetter components of the world are inclined to require much less.

Dr Venkatesh Uddameri, a Texas-based skilled in water assets administration, says a typical knowledge centre can use between 11 million and 19 million litres of water per day, roughly the identical as a city of 30,000 to 50,000 individuals.

His extensively quoted calculations are based mostly on arid, or semi arid, climates and don’t take into consideration latest effectivity enhancements or developments in AI.

Microsoft’s world water use soared by 34% whereas it was growing its preliminary AI instruments, and an information centre cluster in Iowa used 6% of the district’s water provide in a single month in the course of the coaching of OpenAI’s GPT-4.

Local resistance to data centres is growing around the world, notably in areas the place water is scarce.

In Chile, Google stopped constructing an information centre following issues about its water use, and it redesigned the cooling system at one other in Uruguay following native protests.

Within the UK, Thames Water has warned knowledge centres they might face restrictions on use throughout heatwaves.

In 2022, the corporate mentioned it will evaluation knowledge centres’ water use because it ready to introduce a hosepipe ban throughout a summer season draught.

However Foxglove, a gaggle of campaigning attorneys, discovered proof from Thames Water’s technique paperwork the next 12 months that the agency nonetheless didn’t seem to know the way a lot water its current knowledge centre prospects have been utilizing.

Thames Water declined to remark. It signposted its latest five-year plan, which has been authorized by the federal government.

This states that it has no authorized obligation to service companies, and might select to limit or refuse water to business prospects; however this was written earlier than the federal government designated data centres as Critical National Infrastructure, that means they may face fewer planning restrictions.

Thames Water filed an objection to a planning utility for a brand new knowledge centre in a cluster in Slough, close to Studying, in 2021.

However different proposals within the space have since succeeded: for instance in August 2024 the agency Yondr introduced that it will be constructing its third knowledge centre campus there.

Foxglove CEO Martha Darkish mentioned: “The federal government should urgently clarify how its plans for brand new knowledge centres is not going to threaten our long-term provides of consuming water.”

A authorities spokesperson mentioned: “We recognise that knowledge centres face sustainability challenges equivalent to power calls for and water use – that is why AI Progress Zones are designed to draw funding in areas the place current power and water infrastructure is already in place.”

As well as, latest modifications made by the water regulator Ofwat would “unlock £104bn of spending by water firms” within the subsequent 5 years.

The info centre business argues that fashionable websites are already extra environment friendly. Different cooling strategies which don’t require a lot water, equivalent to free air cooling and dry cooling, are evolving.

Closed-loop cooling, which includes reusing water, shall be deployed in Microsoft’s new knowledge centres in Phoenix and Wisconsin.

Aaron Binckley, vice chairman of sustainability at Digital Realty, acknowledged criticism round knowledge centres’ water utilization however claimed that the sector was making “vital strides”.

His firm, which has 300 knowledge centres worldwide, is trialling a brand new AI instrument which analyses operational knowledge and identifies water-saving measures. He says it’s predicted to preserve almost 4m litres of water per 12 months.

Clearly, that’s presently an expectation reasonably than a actuality, however Mr Binckley says it proves that “AI can drive sustainability in addition to technological progress”.

In 2024 the Environment Agency wrote in a blog that by 2050, England alone would wish an additional 5 billion litres of water each day – it says that is the equal of two million wheelie bins-full – simply to serve the inhabitants.

However the regulator now wants extra knowledge with the intention to think about new knowledge centres’ future wants.

In the intervening time, it’s urging knowledge centres to forecast and plan their water consumption – and to discover their very own sources of water, equivalent to water reuse.

“Assembly the elevated water demand isn’t just for the water business to resolve,” says a supply.