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) may put already stretched provides of consuming water underneath pressure, business sources have advised the BBC.

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

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

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

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

Ministers insist the notoriously power-hungry server farms will likely 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 vitality manufacturing by 2030.

However much less consideration has been given to the impression information centres may have on the provision of recent, drinkable water to houses and companies.

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

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

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

The primary of the federal government’s “AI development zones” will likely 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 recognized how a lot water the huge new information centres now deliberate close by may take from it.

The BBC understands Thames Water has been speaking to the federal government concerning the problem of water demand in relation to information 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 vitality and water their information centres are utilizing.

It additionally requires environmental sustainability necessities for all information centres, together with decreasing the usage of consuming water, shifting to zero use for cooling.

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

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

Information centres use recent, mains water, somewhat 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 differ significantly relying on a lot of components together with the encircling setting; websites in colder, wetter components of the world are likely to require much less.

Dr Venkatesh Uddameri, a Texas-based skilled in water assets administration, says a typical information 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 broadly quoted calculations are primarily based on arid, or semi arid, climates and don’t keep in mind current effectivity enhancements or developments in AI.

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

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

In Chile, Google stopped constructing a knowledge centre following considerations 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 information centres they might face restrictions on use throughout heatwaves.

In 2022, the corporate stated it might assessment information centres’ water use because it ready to introduce a hosepipe ban throughout a summer time 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 understand how a lot water its current information centre prospects had been utilizing.

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

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

Thames Water filed an objection to a planning software for a brand new information 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 might be constructing its third information centre campus there.

Foxglove CEO Martha Darkish stated: “The federal government should urgently clarify how its plans for brand new information centres won’t threaten our long-term provides of consuming water.”

A authorities spokesperson stated: “We recognise that information centres face sustainability challenges reminiscent of vitality calls for and water use – that is why AI Development Zones are designed to draw funding in areas the place current vitality and water infrastructure is already in place.”

As well as, current adjustments 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. Various cooling strategies which don’t require a lot water, reminiscent of free air cooling and dry cooling, are evolving.

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

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

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

Clearly, that’s at the moment an expectation somewhat 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 want 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 information with a view to consider new information centres’ future wants.

In the meanwhile, it’s urging information centres to forecast and plan their water consumption – and to discover their very own sources of water, reminiscent of water reuse.

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