Microsoft, Meta and others face rising drought risk to their data centers

The real estate that houses the internet is being affected by the worsening of the U.S. dry spell.

Data centers use a lot of power, which causes their server to generate a lot of heat. The most common method of cooling the centers is water.

In a single day, the average data center could use 300,000 gallons of water to cool itself, the same amount of water used by 100,000 homes.

CyrusOne, which owns and operates over 40 data centers in North America, Europe, and South America, says there is a risk if you rely on water. The data centers are set up to operate for 20 years, so what will the future look like?

KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners bought CyrusOne, which was previously a real estate investment trust. The company used a more expensive method of cooling when it moved into the Phoenix area.

There was a moment where we had to make a decision. We changed our design so that we didn't have that kind of risk.

Meta ran a pilot program on its Los Lunas data center to lower the relative humidity in order to reduce water consumption. In all of its center, it has implemented this.

One fifth of Meta's water consumption last year came from areas deemed to have "water stress." Last year it set a goal to restore more water than it uses by the year 2030.

Microsoft wants to be "water positive" by the year 2030.

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, said that they can recycle almost all of the water they use in their data centers. We collect rain from the roof when it rains in the Pacific Northwest. condensation techniques are developed in places where it doesn't rain.

Private equity firms are buying co-location data centers that lease to multiple clients in order to find high-growth real estate.

The number of co-location data centers in the US is growing, as they offer big returns to investors. The risk from the dry spell is only going to get worse. The latest reading from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows that just over half of the nation is in some form of dry weather. That is an increase from a month ago. A large part of the west and Midwest is in some kind of dry spell.

We need to find a solution to the climate crisis. Smith said that the faster we move to reach the climate goals, the cheaper it will become.