By A Damodaran

With the National Democratic Alliance once again back in power at the Centre, it is more or less clear that India’s tech destiny in the coming years will be guided by the triad of semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), and quantum computing (QC). However, for the three-pronged push to be sustainable, the country needs a robust green computing infrastructure (GCI) which saves energy costs and uses water economically.

According to Climatiq, carbon emissions from cloud computing account for 2.5-3.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Given our progress in renewable energy, it is reasonable to assume that India’s hi-tech sector will be largely driven by green energy in the coming years. Nevertheless, we face formidable challenges when it comes to water resources. Semiconductor fab units, on average, require two million gallons of water per day for washing and rinsing operations. Data centres (DCs), which are crucial ecosystems for QC and AI, consume, on average, 5-20 million litres of water per day depending on where they are located. A bulk of the water resources consumed by DCs is utilised for cooling operations.

India’s average annual water availability stood at 1,123 billion cubic metres in 2020. This works out to be 13% of that of Brazil, the country with the largest endowment of renewable water resources in the world. Given our high water consumption levels, we have limited elbow room for taking up water-intensive projects, unless we undertake a massive drive to recycle and augment freshwater resources. India’s premier tech city, Bengaluru, faces a serious shortage of water resources. As recent reports indicate, the National Capital Region is also in the throes of a major water crisis.

Data centre boom in India

India’s emergence as a global data centre hub has been, by and large, fuelled by the country’s big push on the digital public infrastructure front. With the Union Budget in 2022 granting “infrastructure” status to data centres, a healthy pipeline of long-term funds is expected to flow into this buoyant sector. Governments in states such as Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra have come forward with assured power and round-the-clock water supplies to attract DCs. With the sector expected to expand at 18% compound annual growth rate in the coming six years, demand for power and water would increase substantially in India’s tech cities.

Water-positive data centres

In the US, hyperscale data centres operated by Google, Meta, and Microsoft use recycled water for cooling purposes. These entities have also taken up research projects to replace water-based cooling with air cooling systems. A few “co-location” data centres in the US have come up with interesting innovations to minimise freshwater use in operations.
It is noteworthy that data centres owned by Microsoft and Meta in the US have declared that they will be water-positive by 2030. They propose to achieve this by contributing to the revival of degraded wetlands in the localities in which they operate. With the help of algorithmically managed Internet of Things devices, everyday tasks at the data centre such as patching, monitoring, updating, scheduling, and configuration can all be managed remotely. Similarly, with the help of AI, data centre operators can improve monitoring of operations.

India’s green computing infrastructure

Apart from promoting sustainable computing in DCs, AI, and QC units, India’s GCI needs to be designed as innovation centres that test and calibrate water use technologies in a way that is appropriate for high ambient temperature. The focus should be on customising specific technologies such as “closed loop” and “direct chip cooling” to suit India’s environmental conditions. More significantly, GCI units should facilitate the rehabilitation of degraded wetlands and lakes in water-deficient urban centres, thereby enhancing the supply of local public goods.

Climate imperative

A more fundamental imperative for having a robust GCI in India is the growing emphasis on freshwater sustainability in the climate convention scheme of things.

One of the interesting adjuncts of the Conference of the Parties (COP) 28 held last December in Dubai was the “Freshwater Challenge” unveiled at an event with 15 ministers, hosted by the COP28 presidency. They joined the six countries that launched the initiative at the United Nations 2023 Water Conference in New York — Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Gabon, Mexico, and Zambia. The Freshwater Challenge aims to ensure that 300,000 km of degraded rivers and 350 million hectares of degraded wetlands are committed to restoration by 2030, and to protect freshwater ecosystems. In the wake of COP28, member countries of the convention have been placing emphasis on water conservation projects in nationally determined contributions.

Perhaps a more fundamental justification for having GCI units in India is their potential contribution to transform our hi-tech cities into water-positive ecosystems.

The author is a Senior Visiting Professor at ICRIER, New Delhi, and Ahmedabad University.

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