Science & TechClimate
AdaniConneX says Vizag AI data centres will be air-cooled to spare Mudasarlova water
The campuses for Google's planned AI hub in Visakhapatnam will skip water-hungry cooling towers, the company says, as activists question their closeness to a drinking-water reservoir and a wildlife sanctuary.
Key points
- The Mudasarlova and Tarluvada campuses will use air-cooled systems instead of evaporative cooling.
- Freshwater use across three sites will be less than an Olympic-sized pool.
- Expanded to 6.5 GW, the wider ecosystem could need about 3 TMC of water a year.
The data centres that AdaniConneX is building in Visakhapatnam for Google’s planned artificial intelligence hub will be cooled by air rather than water, the company’s plans show, in an attempt to answer critics who fear the campuses will drain a city reservoir.
AdaniConneX, a joint venture of Adani Enterprises and the US firm EdgeConneX, is developing campuses at Mudasarlova and Tarluvada as part of a proposed development of about 1 gigawatt. The Andhra Pradesh government has approved the Google hub.
The campuses will use “air-cooled systems to eliminate the need for water-based evaporative cooling”, doing away with the cooling towers that make many data centres heavy water users. Google has said it “plans to use advanced air-cooling technology” at the site.
People with knowledge of the plans say freshwater consumption across three sites will be less than the volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, with about 80% of it going to landscaping, kitchens and facilities for workers. The campuses will draw from dedicated industrial water connections rather than municipal supply. Domestic wastewater will be treated and reused on site for irrigation and flushing, and none will be released into the Mudasarlova Reservoir.
The reservoir is a source of drinking water for the city, and environmental activists have questioned building so close to it and to the Kambalakonda Wildlife Sanctuary. Critics have also raised doubts about the environmental assessments and how much water the projects really need.
The government has said that if the wider data centre ecosystem grows to 6.5 GW, it could need about 3 TMC of water a year. State IT minister Nara Lokesh has dismissed claims about the project’s resource needs as misinformation.