Google's water consumption at Chile datacenters rose in 2023

Amid growing pressures on the technology industry regarding the sustainability of datacenters, Google increased water consumption at its sites in Quilicura, Chile, last year, according to the company’s latest sustainability report.

In Chile, the company’s datacenters consumed 105mn gallons of potable water in 2023, up from 104mn gallons (394Ml) the previous year.

Water consumption is reported as the difference between water withdrawal and water discharge and the metrics do not include seawater. 

Overall, Google’s global operations, including not only datacenters, consumed 6.35bn gallons last year, up from 5.56bn in 2022 and from 4.56bn gallons in 2021. The figures for 2022 have been revised upwards.

Considering only datacenters, last year’s consumption rate was the equivalent of what it takes to irrigate 40.7 golf courses annually, on average, according to the company. In 2022, the amount was sufficient for 37 golf courses.

In Chile, the golf course equivalent rate remained below 1. 

Despite the water usage increase, the tech giant claimed in the report that its “water stewardship projects replenished approximately 18% of our freshwater consumption from our datacenters and offices – tripling our replenishment progress of 6% in 2022.”

Water has been a troubling issue for Google in South America.

In February, a Chilean environmental court ordered a halt to construction of a company datacenter so modifications can be made to the project to adapt it to climate change.

The decision partially annuls the approval of the Cerrillos datacenter by environmental review agency SEA around three years ago.

The court concluded that the SEA carried out a poor evaluation of the impacts of the initiative on the central Santiago aquifer.

In Uruguay, the environment ministry only now approved Google's revised Teros datacenter project in Canelones department, first announced in 2020. The project had to be reformulated in 2023 after concerns about water use, among other issues.

The amended initiative presented last year involves the installation of one datacenter instead of the original two, reducing the capacity to a third of what was first proposed.

“I'm clear that these companies, in their sustainability policies and by having signed the CEO Water Mandate, have corporate objectives that exceed the water efficiency parameters stipulated under the regulatory frameworks of several countries in which they operate,” Juan Pablo Camezzana, director of the Latin American desalination and water reuse association (ALADYR) and member of think tank Water Positive, told BNamericas in a March interview, in reference to the Cerrillos woes.

In the interview, Camezzana talked about compensation or the issue of water bonds as an alternative to companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, PepsiCo or Proctor & Gamble.

POWER 

When it comes to energy efficiency, Google reported a power usage effectiveness (PUE) rate for its Quilicura datacenters of 1.09 last year, flat from 2022 and compared to 1.12 in 2018, 1.09 in 2019, 1.08 in 2020 and 1.08 in 2021. 

PUE is calculated by dividing total facility power (entering the site) by IT equipment power (used to run machines). 

The lower the PUE, the more energy-efficient the datacenter.

Once again, Google did not report PUE or water consumption rates for its São Paulo datacenters.

LATAM EMISSIONS

Overall, Google emitted nearly 160,000t of CO2 in Latin America last year, up from roughly 150,000t in 2022. The GHG emissions include both scope 1 and scope 2. 

The company also increased its overall power consumption in Latin America, considering all types of operations, to 425,000MWh in 2023 from 366,000MWh in 2022.

Of the total last year, 336,200MWh, or nearly 80%, involved renewable energy allocated, said Google.

Total renewable energy allocated includes renewable electricity generation from contractual instruments (i.e. certificates), which have been used in the calculation of scope 2 market-based emissions per the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope, said the company.

Thanks to these contracts and to the overwhelmingly clean matrix, above all in Brazil's grid, Google said that it uses about 91% of carbon-free energy (CFE) in its datacenters in Brazil and Chile, compared to a global average of 64%.