Tech-giant Microsoft announced on Monday that it will start its “zero-water evaporated” liquid cooling systems operations for data centers in 2026.
The design is said to optimize AI workloads and consume zero water with the use of a closed-loop design. Steve Solomon, Vice President, Data center Infrastructure Engineering, of Microsoft, said they applied the technology in August 2024 to all their new data centers in Phoenix, Arizona, and Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin. These piloted projects are expected to start their operations in 2026 and will go online in 2027.
“These new liquid cooling technologies recycle water through a closed loop. Once the system is filled during construction, it will continually circulate water between the servers and chillers to dissipate heat without requiring a fresh water supply,” Solomon said.
Solomon notes that the new system will help Microsoft reduce 125 million litres of water consumption per year.
Solomon also said that the zero water commitment is to minimize Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) and Microsoft’s “pledge” to protect local watersheds. Last month, Microsoft along with Google shared their new agreements for a “carbon-free” or a sustainable energy consumption for data centers.
Data centers rely heavily on water to remove heat from data halls containing servers and other IT equipment. A substantial amount of water evaporates as part of the cooling process and must be constantly replaced. According to a NPR 2024 report, data centers use around “300,000 gallons of water a day to keep cool, roughly equivalent to water use in 100,000 homes.”
