Dr. Eric Masanet of UCSB Engineering Materials

Abstract:  Concerns about AI's water footprint are growing, especially at local levels as data center projects proliferate.  The water implications of this unprecedented data center buildout are yet unknown but will depend on combinations of interrelated factors, including site selection, cooling technologies, operational characteristics such as equipment set points and "free cooling" configurations, local climates, and local grid mixes.  The wide range of potential outcomes has led to large variance in literature estimates of future water demand, ranging from "not a problem" to "environmental crisis" in their magnitudes. This presentation will first demystify data center water demand by systematically reviewing its technological and thermodynamic drivers.  Next, the current scales of, and possible future trends in, data center water demand will be assessed based on the largest empirical water efficiency dataset compiled to date and a novel model for simulating future data center water use. Finally, it will conclude with a review of best practices for analyzing data center water demand and critical questions for any consumer of such estimates to ask before using them.

Biography:

Bio: Eric Masanet is Professor and Mellichamp Chair of Sustainability Science for Emerging Technologies at UC Santa Barbara and a Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  He has been analyzing data center energy, water, and sustainability impacts for the past two decades and has published widely on these topics, including co-leadership of the first U.S. national data center report (2007) and co-authorship of the second (2016) and third (2024) reports.  In addition to his academic roles, he has served as a two-time IPCC lead author (AR6 and AR7), as Head of the Energy Demand Technology Unit at the International Energy Agency, as Senior Industrial Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy, as a two-time U.S. National Climate Assessment author (NCA5 and NCA6), and is the former Editor-in-Chief of Resources, Conservation, and Recycling, the leading scientific journal on sustainable resource systems.  He holds a PhD in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley, with a specialization in sustainable manufacturing.