Cases / Data centre · Chile · 2024
Google data centre, Cerrillos (Chile)
Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Chile's Environmental Court questioned a Google data-centre design that relied on at least 7.6 million litres of groundwater a day. In September 2024 Google dropped the original design and moved to air cooling.
≥ 7.6m litres/dayPlanned groundwater use, original design
Design dropped after the Environmental Court's review; project moved to air cooling.
Design dropped after the Environmental Court's review; project moved to air cooling.
What?
Google planned a data centre in Cerrillos, Santiago, cooled with at least 7.6 million litres of groundwater a day. After Chile's Environmental Court questioned the water use, Google dropped the original design in September 2024 and moved to air cooling. CNN Chile
Where?
Cerrillos commune, Santiago, Chile; related site in Quilicura, Santiago.
When?
Chile's Environmental Court questioned the project's groundwater use in 2024; on 17 September 2024 CNN Chile reported that Google had abandoned the original design and announced a redesign. CNN Chile
Who?
Gained
- Google — A water withdrawal right of 50 litres per second in Quilicura, another Santiago commune, at an existing site TechSpot
Lost
- Google — Its original groundwater-cooled design for Cerrillos, abandoned after the Environmental Court's review CNN Chile
Harmed
- Wetland in Quilicura (468 hectares) — Reported by TechSpot as largely dried; data centres in Quilicura draw about 1.5 billion litres of water a year TechSpot
Why?
CNN Chile reported that Google gave up the original design after Chile's Environmental Court questioned its use of at least 7.6 million litres of groundwater a day. CNN Chile
How?
The original design relied on groundwater for cooling; the redesign uses air cooling. Air cooling reduces water drawn on site but raises electricity use, moving part of the water demand to power generation. Latitude Media
In proportion The Cerrillos design's planned groundwater use, about 2.8 billion litres a year at 7.6 million litres a day, was nearly twice the 1.5 billion litres a year drawn by all Quilicura data centres combined (estimate).
6 of 6 questions answered from the record
What happened
The record, in order.
Google planned a data centre in Cerrillos, a commune of Santiago. The original design relied on groundwater for cooling: at least 7.6 million litres a day.
Chile's Environmental Court questioned the project's groundwater use.
On 17 September 2024 CNN Chile reported that Google had abandoned the original design and announced a redesign. The project was converted to air cooling.
In Quilicura, another Santiago commune, data centres draw about 1.5 billion litres of water a year and Google holds a water withdrawal right of 50 litres per second. TechSpot reported that a 468-hectare wetland there had largely dried.
Air cooling reduces water drawn on site but raises electricity use, moving part of the water demand to power generation.
- 2024Environmental Court questions groundwater use
- 2024Google drops original design; air-cooled redesign announced (17 Sep)
How it looked
What was shown, beside what was recorded.
Shown
- A new Google data centre for Santiago
- Redesigned with air cooling
Recorded
- Original design: at least 7.6 million litres of groundwater a day
- Environmental Court questioned the water use
- Google holds a 50 litres-per-second water right in Quilicura
- Quilicura data centres draw about 1.5 billion litres a year
Who gained
Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.
Reached nature or the ground
Not published
No figure published.
Gained elsewhere
Not totalled
Investment value of the project—
Not in the source record.
Currency: USD · Window: —. All figures cover the same period. * Estimate built from cited figures.
In court and with insurers
Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.
Lawsuits and rulings
- 2024Outcome not on recordEnvironmental Court review of Google's Cerrillos data centreEnvironmental Court of Chile · Administrative · Not named in the source record → Environmental approval of Google's Cerrillos project
The court questioned the project's use of at least 7.6 million litres of groundwater a day; Google then dropped the original design and moved to air cooling. CNN Chile
Insurers
No insurer decision on record.
What nature saw
Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.
Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.
Planned groundwater use
≥ 7.6m L/day
Original design
Outcome
Air-cooled redesign
Announced September 2024
Google water right in Quilicura
50 L/s
Existing site
What we don't know
Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Money
- None on record Investment value of the project — Not in the source record.
Court
- Unclear Environmental Court review of Google's Cerrillos data centre: outcome not on record.
Record
- None on record The exact terms and date of the Environmental Court's decision, and who brought the case: not detailed in the source record.
- Unclear Whether the redesigned project has received a new environmental approval.
- None on record The electricity demand of the air-cooled design and the water used to generate it.
- None on record The source record gives the same daily figure (7.6 million litres) for Google's Chilean and Uruguayan projects; the figure has not been cross-checked against permit documents.
Did the harm stop?
The groundwater-cooled design was dropped after the court's review. The Quilicura withdrawal right was not affected.
Who paid?
Not quantified for Cerrillos. In Quilicura, a 468-hectare wetland was reported largely dried.
Sources
Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers
Press and investigations
- Data centers' hidden water footprint is linked to the gridLatitude Media · 2026-08-25
- Big Tech's data centre push will take water from the world's driest areasSourceMaterial · 2025-04-09
Connected cases
Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
- Andhra Pradesh granted Google-linked data centre incentives in October 2025 India · 2025
- Google (Company) — here: Project developer; there: Company the report describes as linked to the recipient
- Big Tech data-centre emissions accounting (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta) United States · 2007–2026
- Google (Company) — here: Project developer; there: Company; reports hourly and annual carbon-free energy matching
- Deep-sea mining: TMC, NORI, the NOAA permit and the ISA International waters (Pacific Ocean) · 2022–2026
- Google (Company) — here: Project developer; there: Pledged not to source deep-sea minerals (2021)
- Google data centre, Canelones (Uruguay) Uruguay · 2023–2024
- Google (Company) — here: Project developer; there: Project developer
- Quilicura data centres draw about 1.5 billion litres a year; wetland largely dried Chile · 2024
- Google (Company) — here: Project developer; there: Holder of a water withdrawal right