Google Data Center Water and Power Use: What We Know

How much water and power does Google’s Lincoln data center use?

A report filed for the Lincoln site, identified as Agate LLC, lists 13.299 million gallons of water used over the last year. It also reports 52.65 megawatts during peak electrical demand ¹.

These are different kinds of figures. The water number covers a stated period, while peak demand describes the highest level of electrical demand—not the total electricity used across the year. The source does not provide the site’s annual electricity total ¹.

How did the figures become public?

Nebraska data centers must submit annual reports to the state Department of Water, Energy, and Environment. Local reporting says Google’s Nebraska sites, including Lincoln, Omaha, and Papillion, claimed their water and electricity figures were trade secrets ¹.

In the Lincoln filing, text hidden beneath a redaction could reportedly be selected and copied into another document. That exposed the reported figures. The report does not establish whether the same copying method revealed figures from the other sites ¹.

Why do data centers use water?

Computer servers generate heat while they operate, and facilities need to manage that heat to keep equipment working. Google data centers may use water in cooling towers, evaporative cooling systems, and humidification ¹³.

Water-use totals do not necessarily mean that every gallon is permanently lost. Some water is circulated through cooling systems, while some is lost during operation, according to the overview of Google’s reporting ³. The Lincoln report groups water used in cooling systems and site operations, but the available source does not break the 13.299 million gallons into those categories ¹.

How does Lincoln compare with other Google data centers?

The Lincoln figure is much smaller than some large Google sites reported for 2023. A review of Google’s 2024 Environment Report says the Council Bluffs, Iowa, complex used nearly 1 billion gallons that year. Sites in Mayes County, Oklahoma, and Berkeley County, South Carolina, each used about 750 million to 800 million gallons ³.

Those older figures are not a direct comparison with the Lincoln filing: they concern different locations and a different reporting period. The same review says Google’s data centers together used more than 6 billion gallons in 2023 ³.

Why do the water and power figures matter?

Data centers need electricity to run servers and water can be part of keeping those servers cool. Local reporting says Nebraska’s public access to some data-center usage figures is limited by state statutes and companies’ claims that the information is trade secret ¹.

Making the Lincoln numbers visible gives residents a more concrete view of one facility’s reported use. But the figures alone do not show the site’s annual electricity consumption, how its water use affects local supplies, or how usage compares with other local users. The available sources do not answer those questions.