Developers of a massive data center in Australia have dropped plans to use recycled water for cooling, citing a lack of planning permission to build a pipeline to transport the water.

Background

The 612-megawatt S7 facility, which would be one of the world’s largest, had hoped to use treated sewage to chill its servers without using drinking water or drawing more heavily from the energy grid.

However, the project’s Australian partner, NEXTDC, told Reuters that it had walked away from talks with utilities due to the lack of planning permission for the pipeline.

Energy-Intensive Method

Instead, the data center will use a more energy-intensive method to cool its servers, circulating liquid coolant around the chips to extract heat, which will then be fanned away.

Experts say this method uses no water but more energy, which could undercut government efforts to curb the booming sector’s drain on resources.

The decision highlights the challenge for authorities around the world as they vie for a slice of the AI construction frenzy, which economists say will top $1 trillion in Asia by 2030.

Pressure to limit data center water usage is especially strong in Australia, the driest inhabited continent, where residents sometimes face water restrictions in drought.

Government Efforts

The Australian government has announced plans to impose energy and water use limits on data center developments, but these efforts are seen as piecemeal and trailing some state government measures.

A Reuters review of 35 data center applications found that authorities have started demanding data center developers provide water usage figures and impose a fixed limit on power usage effectiveness (PUE), a closely watched metric of energy used for cooling and other overheads.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.