Data centres – here today, here tomorrow: Water consumption

Ruth Harris:
Hi everyone. We recorded this episode of Data Centres Here Today, Here Tomorrow in November last year. I invited Charlie Reid, a planning partner in our London office to join Alex Peace, a real estate partner in our Sydney office to bring us up to date about the planning landscape for data centres, particularly as it relates to the use of water. Now, Charlie refers about halfway through this podcast to some planning decisions in London that had been granted by the Secretary of State, but were undergoing challenge. Just as we were about to give the go ahead to release the podcast, we heard rumblings of how this was going to pan out, and so we held off releasing. I'm pleased to say we've now got a bit more clarity on those challenges and appeals, and I'm going to hand over to Charlie who's agreed to provide an addendum to the podcast so that you can all be well appraised of developments and up-to-date.

So thanks, Charlie, for providing the addendum. Over to you.

Charlie Reid:
Thanks, Ruth. And yeah, when we were speaking back in December, I mentioned some ongoing legal challenges in the court system in relation to a data centre scheme in Buckinghamshire, which had been granted planning permission after a very long planning process, granted planning permission by the Secretary of State, but which was subsequently subjected to legal challenge. In the UK, we call that judicial review proceedings. And that legal challenge to the grant of the planning permission was predicated on a lack of environmental impact assessments, and in particular, concern that the water use of the proposed data centre and the energy use of the internal computing systems of the data centre hadn't been properly considered by the Secretary of State in making his decision. And any kind of perceived benefits of the scheme hadn't been properly secured.

And at the time we recorded in December, that was in the system. We didn't know much more than that. However, when we were literally about to publish the podcast in January, a ton of stuff started hitting the press about the Secretary of State allegedly being willing to concede to judgement in that challenge because he had in fact made a logical error when granting the planning permission on the basis that the environmental impact assessment, i.e. the decision to screen out that planning permission from environmental impact assessment was flawed, because it was predicated on the scheme being securing 100% renewable power, and that benefit, 100% renewable power, hadn't been secured. So that's what we understand to be the latest state of play. And as far as we are aware, permission has now been granted by the courts for that legal challenge to proceed, and it will now be proceeding to a substantive hearing. I don't know whether or not the parties, the developer, the interested party will consent to judgement alongside the Secretary of State.

It's just really interesting to see that this is a live issue in the courts right now, and it's something that's probably going to be hotting up even more because recently at the end of February in parliament, the Environmental Audit Committee has raised questions with David Miliband, who's the Secretary of State for energy and climate change in net-zero, asking whether or not the effects of data centres have been considered and fall within the climate change carbon budgets, and they're not satisfied with the response that Ed Miliband has given. And it was in the BBC News back on the 27th of February that the impact of the expansion of data centres in the UK is having an uncertain effect on the UK's efforts to lower carbon emissions to net-zero. So it's a moving space is my point, and one that's really pertinent right now. And so it only seemed right that we brought those most recent updates to our listeners before they go ahead and listen to the rest of the podcast.

Ruth Harris:
Thank you very much, Charlie. And it's quite a complex overlay, isn't it really? I mean, I think it's disappointing that there's a bit of momentum lost there, but obviously it's essential that we do protect our environment. But the end point that you made about where the data centres and the environmental impact and the move towards net-zero and how that all interplays, certainly I hear quite a lot about data centres actually being one of the key organisations that are taking net-zero seriously and are actually providing some of the finance needed to move to clean energy. So there's a really complex interplay. They are maybe one of the big contributors, but they're also contributing to the solutions. Would you agree with that?

Charlie Reid:
Yeah, I think that's right. And I think possibly what we're seeing is with the kind of upturn in the number of data centre projects coming forward and having to navigate through the planning system, I think this was one of the points that we talked about in December, you're going to see increasing levels of sophistication within objectors who don't want these things to come forward, but also within decision makers and the promoters themselves as to the level of information. So I think it's just a question of promoters for data centres becoming increasingly sophisticated in the information that needs to be assembled to support a data centre application, and decision makers and statutory consultees and objectives becoming more and more sophisticated in how to mitigate impacts and lockdown benefits. And that's, I think, what you're now seeing play out in the courts.

Ruth Harris:
Super. Well, listen, without further ado, let's tune into the recording that we did last November, which hopefully isn't out of date other than this point. So over to the rest of the podcast. Thank you very much.

Ruth Harris:
Hello, and welcome to Ashurst's podcast series on data centres. Here today, here tomorrow. I'm Ruth Harris, a finance partner specialising in data centre financing, and I'm joined today by Alex Peace, a partner in our real estate team in Australia, and also co-heads the data centre sector group in Australia. We are also joined by Charlie Reid, a partner in the planning and environmental team here in London. Welcome to both of you.

In previous podcasts, we have discussed how data centres are enormous consumers of electricity. In the UK, for example, some reports mentioned that they consume two to 3% of the entire electricity supply, and this is set to rise significantly by 2030. Some predict it will be in excess of 6% by then, and the US is already approaching these figures. We've explored in previous podcasts the issues of generation of power, transmission of power in these vast quantities, and how grid constraints are inhibiting speed to market. In our podcast with our Indian colleagues, our Middle Eastern colleagues, French, German colleagues, it's been much the same story. With onsite solutions, behind the meter solutions, joint ventures, they're all being announced frequently.

However, today we're not talking about electricity. We're going to talk about water. Why? Water is an essential part of the data centre recipe. Data centres need water for their cooling systems, the IT equipment needs to keep safe and cool to be efficient. And they also need water to create humidity, dry air can damage IT equipment. As we've previously noted, data centres are also huge consumers of electricity, and as anyone who has driven past Drax's power station with its 12 or so cooling towers, you'll know that water is often used in large quantities to provide the steam to power the turbines. Hence, data centres are therefore indirect consumers of water through the large amounts of electricity that they use.

Now, there's been increasing public concern about the amount of water used by data centres. This is perhaps driven by the reputation of some of the older data centres located in perhaps hotter climates that use IT equipment that have old versions of chips that need to be kept at environments at or below, say, 25 degrees celsius. Those data centres might use the older versions of cooling techniques such as evaporation and heat release, rather than using more modern, closed loop systems. However, it's not fair to tar all data centres with the same brush. Technology is moving on. Data centres are now often equipped with chips that can operate efficiently at high temperatures, and might be built in countries with colder climates that can use free air cooling, or if the grid's not too constrained, can use closed loop systems. Both of these considerably reduce the amount of water that's consumed.

That said, in England, the environmental agency has modelled for a shortage of five billions of litres of water per day by 2055 due to housing and other demands on infrastructure, and that's before data centres and energy companies. And yet, we are yet to experience the impact of AI factories. So, quite sobering thoughts. And data centre operators are listening to these concerns and are taking the matter of scarcity of water very seriously.

Now, Alex, hello. You approached our London data centre team to find out how the UK approach to the issue of water stress is dealt with in our UK national planning strategy. Your view is that Australia currently might lack an overarching framework, and you're interested to hear insights from the UK. So, I've invited Charlie here today to discuss our framework, but before you quiz Charlie as to the planning regime in the UK, please can you tell our listeners a little bit about the data centre sector in Australia? Are you also on the race to world domination in artificial, should I say, intelligence? Alex, over to you.

Alex Peace:
Oh, thank you so much, Ruth. We've just published a great summary in our M&A newsletter for Australia, which gives an overview of the Australian market, but I'll touch on a summary here. So, I think it's fair to say it's a robust market, demand is outpacing supply. The key markets in Australia are Sydney and Melbourne, and they have good connectivity to Asia, New Zealand, and Hawaii with undersea cables, and we have a very supportive government of the industry. So, it's the perfect storm for growth in the data centres.

Ruth Harris:
That's really interesting, Alex. Thanks a lot. So, I'm going to move over to Charlie and ask Charlie about data centres in the UK. Now, as we know, data centres have been designated as critical national infrastructure, reflecting our growing strategic focus on data centres in the UK. It's all part of the AI arms race. The government has announced AI growth zones, the aspiration is that they will house at least 500 megawatts of data centre capacity. Now, how does this all fit, Charlie, if the first AI growth zone in Culham in Oxfordshire is in an already water stressed area? How does that fit with this sort of overarching strategy on data centre planning and just planning generally in the UK? Over to you, Charlie.

Charlie Reid:
Yeah, thanks, Ruth. So I think in the UK, that public perception of data centres is sharpening. Data centres aren't new, they've been around for a long time and they've been trickling through the development system, obtaining planning permissions, getting built. And we now have globally the second largest availability zones for data centres just to the west of London. But what you're finding now with the current labour government is with its ambitions for economic growth and digitalization of the economy, a much greater focus on data centres. They've been designated as critical national infrastructure, back in 2024. I think that was the first CNI designation for about a decade. That puts them on the same kind of level as emergency services, energy generation, etc. They're critical to the function of the economy in the government's eyes.

We then see data centres being right at the heart of the 2025 industrial strategy, and right at the heart of planning reform. Planning reform is a key kind of component of this government's agenda. It was in the Chancellor's maiden speech when they first got elected in 2024. And with that, you're seeing a rush of applications, and that's expected to increase come on leaps and bounds, exponentially increase the number of applications. And with the rise of the profile of data centres in the political discourse and then in the number of applications coming through locally and being consulted upon with local communities, I think you're finding a much greater awareness now among communities and lobby groups. So, environmental lobby groups and groups who might be opposed to big tech are now finding their voice. And increasingly, whether it's water specifically or whether it's climate more generally, you often find that the battle lines are drawn at the planning system and the legal challenges around obtaining consent for projects.

Alex Peace:
So Charlie, with the UK system, it's fair to say Australia currently lacks an overarching water and planning strategy to deal with that rise in applications. Is that the case in the UK?

Charlie Reid:
So, there's no kind of regulatory framework that manages the number of planning applications. It's up to the private sector that will apply wherever land is available and wherever they've managed to locate their project, but that is separate to the kind of water regulatory system. And there, I think you do have different regulators, the environment agency, etc, and water companies that have to manage the kind of availability of water supplies on a more regional basis. And I think that's definitely something that is being looked at by the government. It's published, there's a research paper that the UK Parliament published only this summer, where water availability and consumption is right up centre as the government seeks to formulate or better articulate a kind of national strategy for data centres. But when you drill down to a local level, I think it's much more piecemeal.

Alex Peace:
And when we last spoke, you mentioned that the UK was in drought or had water, water -

Charlie Reid:
Water scarcity.

Alex Peace:
Scarcity, which is for Australia, we think, how can that be in the UK?

Charlie Reid:
Yeah. Well, certainly looking out the window today, it's very wet. But I think water neutrality and water scarcity is an issue in the UK development sector. And if you think about what the government in the UK is trying to do just across the whole development piece, it set itself the objective of 1.5 million new homes, 150 development consent orders, which are the type of consents for nationally significant infrastructure projects, be that, power, be that Heathrow's third runway. All of these high profile projects have to come through the system, and what do they need? They all need land, they all need power, they all need consents, and they will all have impacts on the communities, host communities, and environmental receptors around them.
And water scarcity is an issue that's come up, particularly around Cambridge, particularly in Sussex, in the Horsham area, and North Sussex. And so, it's something that if it's not resolved, risks sort of blocking development and creating a kind of paralysis in the sector. And we saw that, we've seen that in the housing sector, and it's actually, interestingly, only recently been resolved. Thousands of homes in Sussex were held up, weren't granted permission because they weren't able to demonstrate water neutrality. And that's been caused, the block is being caused by a sort of environmental regulator, Natural England, that's concerned for protected habitats that are getting water stressed. Its result is that housing developers have got to demonstrate water neutrality. How can they do that? They can't.
And so, what you've ended up having is this kind of, interestingly, a role for central government to bang heads together and bring together the key stakeholders in that situation, which was Southern Water, the water regulator, the environment agency and Natural England, and using the different regulatory kind of levers that each of those bodies have to create and redefine what is water neutrality in this area. It's a combination of different things by all those different stakeholders pulling whatever levers they have available to them, be that like a reduced level of abstraction, better ecological management, etc, etc. And then that's caused the unlock that's now enabling housing permissions to be granted.

Alex Peace:
So, how does that impact the planning application for data centres? How do they go about it? Do they engage early? Who do they engage with?
Charlie Reid:
Well, so there's going to be, with any kind of planning application, a lot's going to depend on location where you are and water stress is inherently regional. I think if you're in probably the west of the UK, you're going to have more water than if you're in the east, and different levels of sensitivities and receptors that might be affected.

But the way in which the planning system grapples with it is through this concept of environmental impact assessments. So the purpose of an, I'm going to shorthand call it EIA, sorry, it's one of my acronyms that I'll bring to the table. But an EIA effectively is where you assess whether or not your development project, whatever it might be, is likely to have significant effects on the environment, and its purpose or its function is to ensure that those effects are paper trailed, documented, available for the public to read and be aware of so that their public participation in the process and that the effects can be engaged with. And that regard has had those in the weighing of the balance as to whether or not you grant permission or not. So, you can acknowledge that there's an effect, you can mitigate the effects, you can then decide whether or not to grant or not, depending on the level of harm.

And what I think is happening at the moment in the data centre sphere specifically is that many data centres are screened out of EIA. So, they are engaging. Who wants to have extra paperwork if you can avoid it, right? And it's completely legitimate and lawful to avoid to be screened out of an EIA. And many data centres are falling below that bar and are able to, because they're not classified as a mandatory EIA project or that they're in a location where there aren't particular sensitivities that would push them in, and they're able to persuade authorities. But as we were just saying at the outset, the more savvy that objectives and communities become, I think the more that they are poking that kind of trend.

Ruth Harris:
Yeah. That's really interesting what you say about the public perception of data centres. And I know that some of the operators now are really placing a lot of focus on this. CyrusOne have published a really interesting read, which is 'Listening to Communities'. And in this survey, it's an independent survey, they have looked into why the public perception of data centres actually matters. And do people actually understand data centres, and what would make them feel more positive about data centres, amongst lots of other topics. And it seems to be that actually, a lot of the general public don't really understand data centres. They don't understand what their use is, and they sort of tar data centres all with the same brush. So they don't think about the different size or specification or design or the different cooling systems that are adapted, and they don't look at the investments that some of the data centre operators are actually making back into the communities, like Pure Data and Ark Data Centres. Well, all of them actually are now really focusing on investing back into the communities.

If you actually look at water facts, for example, you may have an old data centre out in a very hot climate, perhaps in America, that is using billions of litres of water per year. And then you look at the more modern, more recently designed data centres and actually, the comparable could be that they're only using the same amount of water in a whole year that one or two households would, and so, much less than perhaps a golf course would, and probably a lot less than the water that is lost every year through leakages. So, it's really important to put it in context, old data centre, new data centre, size and type of data centre, they are not all the same.

Charlie Reid:
Exactly, Ruth, and it's all swirling around because what you have is this pressure at a national level, data centres are needed for the economy, and an industry that is still, I think, finding the best way to articulate to its local level, to its host communities what the benefits of the development is because it's a box. It's not necessarily going to provide as many jobs as other land uses.

Ruth Harris:
Yeah, that's true.

Charlie Reid:
... and it's taking resources or having impacts, is the perception. And so, that's I think that's the kind of dynamic we've got big picture right now. You're always going to think, well, it's an enormous building, therefore it's going to have an enormous impact just by big is big, big, big, big. But actually, with a data centre that we were supporting through the planning system recently, when it came down to it, actually the engineers did a comparison and they said it actually would only consume around 630 cubic meters of water per year, which was the equivalent to an office with 44 people in it.

Ruth Harris:
There we go, yeah. These comparisons are coming out. They're very useful.

Charlie Reid:
When you actually boil it down, it's not that bad. But it's exactly that in the UK. I mean, that particular project is using a kind of closed loop system to cool its servers-

Ruth Harris:
Makes such a difference.

Charlie Reid:
... and cool building and it's not using these kind of much more water intensive techniques, I think like evaporation.

Ruth Harris:
Yeah.

Charlie Reid:
Yeah.

Alex Peace:
And are you seeing changes in the length of the planning process for these applications to get off the ground?

Charlie Reid:
Well, it's the classic conundrum in planning, the push and pull of the local and the national. I think what we've seen in the UK right now at this moment in time is a government that's very much saying yes to development and therefore rush whatever sector you're in to try and get your application onto the desk of the Secretary of State. And there have been a number of data centre planning permissions granted in the last year or so by the Secretary of State, and there'll be more going through. There are others that have been granted and managed to get through at the local level in London and elsewhere.
The thing that every developer, data centre or otherwise will be worried about in the UK is the risk of legal challenge. And that's something that the government's worried about too, given its agenda and it's seeking to reform what's the process, which is known as judicial review. And we are now seeing there is now a decision that the Sector of State granted in, I think it was July, 9th of July 2025, they granted planning permission for two data centres north of London and that's now being challenged in the court and that's had quite a journey. The original planning application was refused, a revised scheme went in, it was also refused, it's now been granted by the Secretary of State, but now it's being challenged. So, challenge equals delay, equals lack of a financial investment decision, lack of investment, lack of debate.

Ruth Harris:
Yeah, knock on effects. Yeah.

Charlie Reid:
Right. But interestingly, to just finish the point, that challenge gets back to what we were just talking about, because it's predicated on a lack of EIA. And so, I think that the challenge has a number of grounds. I think they're trying to say that the project failed to have a legally necessary EIA. That it failed, the decision maker, the Secretary of State, failed to consider material factors such as water consumption, electricity demand, and associated carbon emissions. That the permission was granted unlawfully because of the lack of EIA. And that the Secretary State irrationally credited the scheme with climate benefits, despite the evidence that the level amount of renewable energy commitments was only a fraction of the power use. So, I think you can see there a mobilisation of lobbyists who have concerns for the climate and the environment. Finding a way to articulate their objections against a planning permission and we'll see where that goes. It only got filed in the court in the summer.

Alex Peace:
Well, it sounds super interesting. It sounds as though community engagement and good strategic direction is crucial early on for these sorts of developments.

Charlie Reid:
Yeah, absolutely.

Alex Peace:
Yeah.

Charlie Reid:
And it depends really on the process, but pre-application consultation with your key stakeholders is an integral part of every UK developer's mandate, I suppose. And if you're in the nationally significant infrastructure regime, then it's actually a statutory duty right now, albeit the government's looking to reform that so that it becomes a bit more flexible.

Alex Peace:
And are you seeing much in the way of operators and developers using alternative water sources?

Charlie Reid:
Not water sources, but the use of water in a scheme will be part of the project's energy strategy and the sustainability strategy. And if there's... I think developers will consider that if they're pushed to, if that makes sense.

Alex Peace:
Yeah.

Charlie Reid:
I guess it must depend really on the region and the technology being the design of the scheme is to the extent to which you can rely on different types of water sources. But you do have sustainable urban drainage systems now, they're incorporated into all schemes, and I imagine that's something that might continue to grow.

Ruth Harris:
So that's interesting. So, part of the planning play here may be for data centres to be involved in schemes like rain harnessing and other self-collection or self storage on site. We've spoken in the podcast before, I suppose, about how battery storage systems onsite are being used for some data centres for backup source of energy, either to load balance or use in outages. We're starting to hear suggestions of flow restrictions and onsite collection and storage of water, as well as use of untreated water. Charlie, we were talking the other day about using untreated water, sewage water, untreated rather than drinking water. And all of this, of course, can help with water efficiencies and probably would help with the public perception as well.

Charlie Reid:
Well, I think two points to make that I think is quite interesting. So, when Alex and I first had a chat, I said, "It's interesting that you're coming to us with a water angle because I think in the UK, actually the focus is on power. It's about what everyone needs to secure is land planning and power, and power is where the focus is given the problems that we have in the UK with the grid right now. And will it flip or change so that water becomes a strategic kind of objective that has to be secured upfront in the similar way?"

Ruth Harris:
I can see it going that way, in certain areas anyway.

Charlie Reid:
Yeah, and-

Ruth Harris:
I mean, just to add to that, in the AI growth zones that are being designated, as I understand it, to actually be designated as an AI growth zone, you first have to do a statement from the local water supplier that the site has sufficient access to water. And I know that Cambridge Water have said they'll only provide that statement if the water can be supplied sustainably without impacting existing customers, so.

Charlie Reid:
Yeah, and that just completely dovetails with everything we've just been saying, Ruth, because Cambridge is a water stressed area-

Ruth Harris:
Sure.

Charlie Reid:
... that has been affected by water neutrality problems that has held up housing. So, what you can see there is a flagship policy of the government to try and stimulate digitalization and growth, AI growth zones. But also a government that whilst wanting to stimulate and encourage development, is desperate to make sure that it's perceived to be balancing the requirements of nature and ecological restoration.

Ruth Harris:
Absolutely.

Charlie Reid:
And so with that kind of policy, that's at a national level, they're able to hardwire into it the need to balance ecological and environmental demands alongside development. And that's why, I mean, Cambridge is a flash point, I think, in terms of water stress in the UK.

Ruth Harris:
[inaudible 00:23:59].

Charlie Reid:
But the other point I was just going to make quickly about Alex being water led, and just get back to the challenge in the EIA is, there was a Supreme Court case recently called Finch, and it was not to do with water at all, it has to do with oil. But the point is, it started to look at how you assess the projects and impacts. Do you just look at the project or in the case of that oil extraction project, do you look at the downstream effects of the consumption of the oil? And in that case, they said yes, because it could be calculated.

But I wonder whether or not that kind of slightly pushing at the door within the EIA world at the upstream and the downstream, you can see it in that case I mentioned that's currently going through the courts. They look, how green is your electricity? How much water does your data centre use? Where does the water come from? Or how much water is your electricity supply using? You can see this as communities and lobbyists get more savvy and the industry generally I think just becomes more sophisticated, those are the sorts of questions that might get asked.

Ruth Harris:
Agreed, but presumably, I don't know where you are in Australia on this, but we don't really have the information, do we? Data centres are not providing the information that perhaps is the information that is needed on WUE, so water usage effectiveness. So, I think maybe we need some of these metrics so that we can actually start getting the data from the operators so we can actually see what looks good, what doesn't look good, what types of data centres should maybe be built in certain types of areas. So, I think perhaps a little bit of an advancement in that transparency and some sort of metrics across the globe where you can actually have some comparables.

I know that some of the data centres have signed up to the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact, which is a voluntary industry agreement. I think more than 90% of data centres have committed to it from what I hear. And they set WUE targets of 0.4 litres per kilowatt hour. So, it'd be good to see against that set objective, how are data centres performing, but I haven't seen any report on that that actually has reliable information from the operators voluntarily putting their information in. And perhaps that would be a really good move to move things forward. What do you think?

Charlie Reid:
Yeah, I guess it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg, isn't it? How does the process start? Because you need the data centre developers to provide the kind of information to the regulators so that they can form a more uniform metric against which they assess demand and supply and can manage water resources. And then I think that would then mean that they, in the UK at least, water companies will be statutory consultees on planning applications, and then you have a more kind of informed, engaged statutory consultation response that can then be assessed by the authorities. And at the moment, I guess it's a little bit uneven, I think is what you're saying. But I don't know how you start the process to create that level playing field.

Alex Peace:
Yeah. It's an interesting point and it'll be interesting to see where it goes because you're right, there's a lot of talk about the impacts that data centres have in terms of energy and water. But as you said earlier in terms of the reporting and how much water they actually use, was much less than the public perception.

Ruth Harris:
Yeah. In a lot of cases.

Alex Peace:
In a lot of cases, yeah.

Ruth Harris:
Not saying in all cases it is, but I think we can't tar them all with the same brush, is what I'm saying.

Alex Peace:
Yeah, yeah.

Ruth Harris:
So, thank you, Alex. That's all we've got time for today. Thank you for your really interesting questions and thank you, Charlie, for these really interesting insights.
I'm just going to bring a few of the themes together. So it's clear, I think, there's a lot more focus now on water and its use in data centres than there was say five years ago. And there are emerging signs that data centre operators are taking it all really seriously and are maturing in their water stewardship. But assessing the full water footprint of these projects is expected to remain a major challenge unless and until there are common metrics of reporting. So, comparables on what looks good and calling out good practise. The UK government may have articulated a national framework for data centres, but there's still work to be done and I think that's Charlie and Alex, that's the theme. There's always more that we can do. We're in the early stages of pulling that together at the local and regional level, I would say, and so, much more work to be done there.

And another theme that I thought of today when I've been listening to you guys chatting is this whole idea of collaboration. We've talked about it in other podcasts. The idea that in this industry that's moving so fast, we need collaboration. We've talked about before collaborations between power and operators, collaborations on supply chains and skills. I really think that even with this water issue, that collaboration is going to be part of the solution. Maybe that's bringing water companies and data centre operators closer together to solve some of the leakage problems or replace some of the older pipes. Who knows what it might be, but I'm sure that there's lots of collaboration that we can look forward to.

So, I'm going to close with one interesting thought, or at least I think it's interesting, in that we all have a part also to play in the efficient use of energy and water in data centres. Do you know that when you do a ChatGPT search, it uses 10 to 20 times more energy than a Google search? Now, that might not be much per actual individual search. So for example, it's three to five kilowatt hours for a ChatGPT search using about 10 to 50 prompts, and that also uses about half a litre of water. I mean, don't quote me on any of these stats, this is just what I've read, but I think this is interesting all the same.

So, if you think every time you do a ChatGPT search rather than just a Google search, that you are actually using more energy than you perhaps need to. And it might only be small like charging your iPhone for a few minutes and just drinking a glass of water, but that's not a problem if you're only doing one search a day, but it is one to ponder if you're using ChatGPT for lots and lots of things. So, I'll leave you with that thought.

Thank you to all our listeners for joining us. If you'd like to know more about Ashurst's data centre experience across our global networks, please do get in touch or visit our data centre hub on our website, which is www.ashhurst.com. And you'll find a whole host of information there, including some jargon busters and much more. Look out for our next podcast where you'll hear from Ishmael and our team in Spain. But for now, goodbye.