Gone with the clouds: Estimating the electricity and water footprint of digital data services in Europe

Abstract

Cloud and data services have experienced a constant increase in demand ever since their availability. Whether for computing of complex models, digital data storage, blockchain transactions or digital service hosting, digital data is having an increasingly important role in society. However, with the increasing presence of data centers, not only the availability and quality of cloud and data services increases, but also the demand for electricity and water by the digital services industry. This work aims to provide an estimation for the current and future water consumption of digital data services in Europe from 2022 to 2030. The projection considers European trends for population, data services consumption, technological development, data transmission and energy consumption among other factors. Publicly available data was combined with literature research to extrapolate the development of digital data usage in Europe until 2030. The results demonstrate that from 273.4 to 820.1 million cubic meters of water and from 56.3 to 169 Terawatt-hour of electricity will be consumed yearly in Europe in 2030 for internet usage.