BENGALURU: An increasing number of data centres is aggravating the “heat island” effect in Bengaluru, which is commonly experiencing heavy thunderstorms and hailstorms due to it.
Experts have sought regulated use of artificial intelligence (AI) data centres to avoid such phenomena, and urged the state government to help spread awareness about the adverse impacts of mushrooming data centres in the city.
Besides further contributing to the “heat island” effect, these centres add to noise pollution, air pollution, water wastage and increase the cost for home energy users.
Massive amounts of natural resources are required for cooling and heating the systems that assist smooth functioning of AI data centres. Experts have red-flagged massive consumption of water by the increasing number of AI data centres, with Bengaluru already hosting 31 data centres, while two are under construction, as per the Department of Electronics, IT, BT and S&T, Karnataka. Beyond Bengaluru, there is only one centre – in Mangaluru.
Data centres use 25m litres of water per MW
According to global statistics, around 25 million litres of water per megawatt on average is consumed every year by AI data centres. Besides, they also use high amounts of electricity constantly that deplete natural resources, threatening the environment.
Akshay Heblikar, Director, Eco-Watch, said AI data centres require 24x7 supply of electricity and water to cool the systems. Though 10% of electronic waste produced by these data centres can be recycled, it takes more natural resources to treat them for further use. He urged the government to spread awareness about these issues and enact a policy where only certain sectors that absolutely require AI be allowed to use them.
Mithun Hanumesh, Head of the Centre of Excellence in Nature-Based Solutions at Alliance University, said Bengaluru’s rapidly growing data centre ecosystem is adding pressure on an already water-stressed city.
Citing recent estimates and industry studies, he noted that data centres may collectively consume up to 20 million litres of water per day for cooling and associated operations, depending on their size, cooling technology, climatic conditions and energy demand.
He observed that many modern data centres are increasingly being located in coastal regions, colder climates and areas with access to renewable energy to improve cooling efficiency and manage significant heat generated by these centres.
An AI expert told TNIE that environmental impacts should be considered as AI includes generating fast outputs to prompts, image rendering, decision-making, voice enhancement and so on. Batteries, servers and satellites that require apt outer space infrastructure (scrap waste) that help power these data centres are non-biodegradable material which have an extinction period and should be discarded after use.
IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge had earlier said that to generate one megawatt of power, Rs 70 crore is required. Just five prompts to ChatGPT require up to 500ml of water, but with millions using AI prompts, the massive water consumption can be worrying. Kharge said there is a policy that has existed for the last three years, but the department is thinking of bringing in a sustainable data centre policy.
Manjula N, Secretary, Department of Electronics, IT, BT and S&T, said these data centres require an acre of land per megawatt construction, but vertical construction is being looked into currently.
“The upcoming policy on data centres will ensure companies to efficiently use water and power while also carefully looking into other environmental impacts like heat emissions.
Data centres are inevitable as they are required for computation. Though the upcoming policy will welcome AI data centres, they will focus on encouraging sustainable environment-friendly practices,” she added.
WHAT IS A DATA CENTRE?
A data centre is a specialised facility with vast computational power to train and run artificial intelligence and machine learning models that are optimised for quick data processing and analysis
HOW MUCH POWER IS CONSUMED BY DATA CENTRES
If a data centre is operating at full 1 MW (1,000 kW), this means it consumes 1,000 units of electricity every hour (1 unit = 1 kilowatt per hour or kWh). So, the daily consumption would be 24,000 units (1,000 kWh × 24 hours = 24,000 kWh/day)
