First they were blamed for using up all the electricity in west London, now data centres are being blamed for using all the water, too.
Thames Water is investigating the water consumption of data centres, in an effort to cut down the wastage that comes from cooling them with drinking water.
According to estimates, a medium-sized data centre can use as much water as an 18-hole golf course.
The ones in the UK use drinking water from the national supply. “We want to look at how non-drinking water can be used and reused,” said John Hernon, Thames Water’s strategic development manager. Some data centres in Scandinavia use seawater for cooling.
Thames Water joined five other water companies by introducing a hosepipe ban for its 15m customers from today.
