Managing Water as a Risk, Not a Cost
Water-Free Cooling
We recognize that water is a limited resource in high demand, meaning that issues with water supply could reduce our access to water for operations or increase friction with local communities. Facilities dependent on water for cooling may face operational interruptions or require costly retrofits to less water-intensive types of cooling. Water as a resource is chronically undervalued, so we manage water as a risk, rather than a cost.
In many data centers, water is consumed for cooling purposes, replacing electricity or other energy sources. To minimize risk, and to reduce our negative impacts on local communities, we strive to make our operations as water efficient as possible. Most of our facilities already use cooling systems that do not consume water (water-free cooling), and we continue to update our cooling systems at existing facilities.
Avoiding evaporative cooling results in a somewhat higher design PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness, a common metric used to measure data center efficiency) than could be achieved by “burning” water instead of electricity, but it allows us to prepare for the future and mitigate the impacts data centers have on regional water supplies. We do not ignore our carbon footprint — on the contrary, we are aggressively pursuing energy efficiency and carbon-free electricity. Our facilities are designed for a future where they will neither consume large amounts of water nor emit large amounts of carbon.
In the past, because the electrical grid relied on thermoelectric generation (consuming water to make steam and then electricity, usually with fossil fuels), it was generally thought that onsite water consumption to reduce cooling electricity was a good substitute for water that wasn’t consumed at the power plant. However, we understand that current and future electrical generation will rely more and more on renewable sources. These energy sources (solar, wind, etc.) are dramatically less water-intensive than yesterday’s thermoelectric fossil-fuel generation.
When we switch to renewable electricity to achieve our climate-neutral target, that power will consume effectively no water in our electricity supply chain. Since the majority of our sites consume no onsite water for cooling, our total water consumption at these sites will be negligible (see our case study for more information). This strategy leaves us largely insulated from future water risk, as opposed to many others in our industry that design around water consumption.
Learn more about how CyrusOne upgraded our data center in Carrollton, TX, (DFW1) to a water-free cooling design.
