Iris Stewart-Frey, a professor of environmental science and hydrology at Santa Clara University, said that potential data center impacts may be even greater in the future as the facilities get bigger and more widespread.
Fifty-one facilities are currently planned in the state, according to a recent study from the Pew Research Center, an 18% increase over the 277 operating today. According to a study from UC Riverside, data center electricity use in the state doubled between 2019 and 2023.
The environmental impact of data centers, and in particular of the hyperscale data centers rapidly being built around the U.S. (and around the world) for the ongoing training and deployment of AI models, has become a topic of public contention.
Amazon.com Inc. said its data centers used 2.5 billion gallons of water worldwide last year, or about 5% of the amount metro Seattle consumes annually.
A massive Amazon data center already being built on Gilroy’s eastern edge has become a flashpoint over how much say residents get before Silicon Valley’s next wave of tech infrastructure arrives in their backyards.
In the small desert community of Inyokern, a developer’s plan to build an AI data center is drawing skepticism from residents and concern from officials in nearby Ridgecrest, largely because of water use in an already water-stressed area.
