Report: Goodyear ‘air-cooled’ AI data centers guzzling unknown millions of gallons of water

Goodyear’s Microsoft AI-intensive data center received national attention in The Atlantic in March after the publisher claimed that once fully built out, it may use 56 million gallons of water a year, but the city and state can never disclose the amount.

According to The Atlantic, the city is unable to release the amount of water the data center is using. However, the report claims that, at full build-out, Microsoft estimates the data center could use up to 56 million gallons annually.

Those projections could be optimistic, according to city documents.

In 2023, the Goodyear City Council approved an amendment to allow Microsoft to use 1.2 million gallons of water per day at the plant at full build-out, according to city documents and reports.

In its 2022 environmental report, Microsoft stated the company consumed 6.4 million cubic meters of water, up 36% from 4.7 million the previous year.

Shaolei Ren, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside, believes generative AI’s increased demand contributed to that increase. According to his research, AI will consume 4.2 billion to 6.6 billion cubic meters of water a year globally by 2027, or four to six times the annual water withdrawal from Denmark.

According to Ren's study, much water usage is tied to GPT-3 training.

“Training GPT-3 in Microsoft’s state-of-the-art U.S. data centers can directly evaporate 700,000 liters of clean freshwater, but such information has been kept a secret,” the study claims.

According to The Atlantic report, the Goodyear data center may be one of the most intensive in terms of computational demand.

Ren’s recently published study analyzed the efficiency of water use in Microsoft AI processing and Arizona is a world leader in inefficiency. Arizona data centers only processed 15.1 inferences per 500 mililiters of water consumed, almost half the U.S. average at 29.6. Arizona data centers only trailed Washington in inefficiency (10.4).

According to IBM Research, an AI Inference is “the process of running live data through a trained AI model to make a prediction or solve a task.”

The inefficiency may suggest more complex tasks, but it is unclear.

The Goodyear Independent contacted the city for comment on the water use and allegations the city was hiding or redacting numbers. Tammy Vo, digital communications director for Goodyear, provided the following statement.

“The information on Microsoft’s water usage is proprietary to Microsoft and cannot be shared by the city,” she wrote.

Goodyear houses other water and AI-intensive data centers.

Vantage data center is reportedly also air-cooled, but the city stopped short of saying it uses no water.

“Vantage continues to prioritize its ongoing commitment to sustainability. The company has designed its Goodyear campus to use virtually no water for cooling, instead employing a closed-loop chilled water system with air-side economizers that allows for reduced energy use based on outside ambient temperature,” the city wrote in a press release.

The city also houses a DCX “Innovative AI Data Center.”

“At DCX we offer purpose-built hyper density data center solutions for high performance computing, AI, machine learning, and mission-critical applications,” DCX’s website states. “Our 12 (megawatt) campus in Goodyear, Arizona, offers lights-out colocation and tax incentives through the computer data center program.”

Additionally, Goodyear and neighboring city Buckeye are slated to border a 529-acre AI datacenter in unincorporated county land, if approved by the county.

According to Maricopa County Records, developers are seeking to rezone the county land use designation from “rural densities” and “small lot residential” to “industrial” for approximately 529 acres to allow for the development of an AI-friendly data center technology park.

The current proposed application, however, has received some pushback from cities.

“There is opposition from both the city of Buckeye and the city of Goodyear,” a Maricopa County rep stated. “APS (Arizona Public Service) may not have sufficient power for the proposed facility, but that has not been confirmed. At this time, Planning and Development are not supportive of this proposal.”

Water pressure and quality concerns

The immediate region of the site has also experienced controversies and concerns about water supplies and quality.

In Buckeye, bordering a new data center development proposal, the construction of new community projects has halted due to a state requirement of proof of a 100-year assured water supply. In Litchfield Park, residents have complained about low water pressure from their water utility company. The company claims demand and unprecedented heat have deteriorated its serviceability and must draw water from neighboring Goodyear to supplement demands.

Maricopa County Planning and Development is slated to consider an application for a 529-acre data center campus, to service AI processing, bordering Goodyear and Buckeye despite municipal and grassroots opposition.

Possible PFAS or “forever chemical” pollution also increases concern. The U.S. Air Force is trying to delineate how far and at what concentration a "forever chemical" called PFAS has spread from Luke AFB’s fire training area to the surrounding West Valley watershed.