Google Data Center Gets Water Reuse System

A Google data center in Georgia is the internet firm’s first U.S.-based data center to conserve water using a water reuse system.

The system, financed by Google and owned by the Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority, is helping to keep the Chattahoochee River clean and conserving the reservoir’s water supply, the water authority said.

In 2008, Google financed the building of the WSA’s Sweetwater Creek Sidestream Plant, about five miles west of the data center. This reuse treatment facility that intercepts up to 30 percent of the water from the local water and sewer authority’s treatment plant. The grey water then flows into the data center’s cooling towers, drawing heat away from the computers.

In January, Google announced that it had received ISO 14001 certification for all of its U.S. data centers, reducing oil consumption in its back-up generators by 67 percent in the process.