With the rapid advances and uses of AI technology, hyperscale data center projects are popping up all across the Southeast, including here in Alabama. These facilities require hundreds of acres of land and buildings to house vast amounts of computers requiring unprecedented amounts of energy and water to operate.
Data Centers are large buildings that store computer hardware. This hardware can be used for things like data storage or “AI.” Depending on the scale and type of computing being done in these buildings, they can use vast amounts of electricity and water. The largest of these data centers, called “hyperscale data centers,” can be millions of square feet and consume more power and water than medium-sized cities. Water is used in data centers in order to cool equipment that heats up as it performs its computing tasks. Their impact on water use is compounded in states like Alabama, where many of our power plants also use water to generate electricity.
Alabama is in an even worse situation because of our state’s antiquated water law and lack of a water plan. An Alabama Water Plan would enable more robust planning for future uses of water, and ensure that when drought hits, luxury uses of water – like cooling a data center – take a back seat to critically important uses such as agriculture, human consumption, power generation, and environmental flows that keep ecosystems and animals healthy and flourishing.
Our antiquated water law also hampers investment in the state. Businesses cannot be certain of their water rights. All surface water withdrawals and use may be subject to lawsuits, and all off-tract use of surface water is actually illegal, and can be stopped by courts. At the same time, costly lawsuits are the only way for landowners to stop unlawful uses of water which may harm them. Without a water plan, nobody in Alabama, no matter what they use water for, can be truly confident that they won’t experience a disruption during times of drought.
Earlier this year, Alabama Rivers Alliance and Southern Environmental Law Center joined together for a Water is Life Zoom Talk to discuss data centers. Click below to watch the presentation.