Documents show that the energy and water projected to be consumed by the data center campus are staggering. If built to full capacity, the Bessemer data center campus could consume around 10.5 million megawatt hours of energy per year, based on estimates provided to residents by representatives of the data center development.
That’s more than 90 times the amount of energy used by all residences in Bessemer annually, according to figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
A recent regulatory filing by county officials estimated that water usage by the facility could amount to 2 billion gallons per day. That’s more than five times the entire state’s daily residential usage, according to government figures.
That’s half the annual generation of the largest power plant in the US.
The entire US uses 18 billion gallons of water per day from direct draws (not drinking water connections).
I have to admit this can be only horseshit. I don’t want to be an apologist.
Here another slightly older figure: That’s the entire daily fresh groundwater use of the entire US.