Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Data centre · Uruguay · 2023–2024

Google data centre, Canelones (Uruguay)

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
  • The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
What the record lacks: 3 none on record · 1 not disclosed · 1 not measured See the gaps

Google's original design for a data centre in Canelones foresaw about 7.6 million litres of drinking water a day, at a time of drought. Uruguay approved a reformulated project: air-cooled, at about one third of the capacity.

7.6m litres/day → air coolingPlanned drinking-water use, original design → approved design
Approved design at about one third of the original capacity.
What?
Google planned a data centre in Canelones whose original design foresaw about 7.6 million litres of drinking water a day, while Uruguay went through its 2023 water crisis. In 2024 Uruguay approved a reformulated project: air-cooled, at about one third of the original capacity. BNamericas
Where?
Department of Canelones, Uruguay.
When?
The plan was under discussion during the 2023 water crisis, documented in a Presidency report of 23 August 2023; Uruguay approved the reformulated project in 2024. Presidencia de la República, Uruguay
Who?
Gained
  • Google — Government approval in 2024 for a reformulated, air-cooled data centre in Canelones BNamericas
Lost
  • Google — About two thirds of the originally planned capacity, under the approved design (the approved design has about one third of the original capacity) BNamericas
Harmed
None on record
Why?
None on record
How?
The original design foresaw about 7.6 million litres of drinking water a day for the site; the approved design uses air cooling instead. Air cooling reduces water drawn on site but raises electricity use, moving part of the water demand to power generation, and Google does not report that indirect water. Latitude Media
In proportion The approved data centre has about one third of the capacity in Google's original design. BNamericas
5 of 6 questions answered from the record · open: why

What happened

The record, in order.

Google planned a data centre in the department of Canelones, Uruguay. The original design foresaw the use of about 7.6 million litres of drinking water a day for the site.

The plan was under discussion during Uruguay's 2023 water crisis. A report published by the Presidency in August 2023 documented the water deficit; bottled water was distributed tax-free.

In 2024 Uruguay approved a reformulated project. The data centre would be air-cooled and would have about one third of the originally planned capacity.

Air cooling reduces water drawn on site but raises electricity use, which moves part of the water demand to power generation. In the United States, indirect water use linked to the grid has been estimated at about 12 times the direct water use of data centres; among the largest operators only Meta reports indirect water.

  1. 2023Water crisis; Presidency report on the water deficit (Aug)
  2. 2024Uruguay approves reformulated project: air-cooled, about one third of capacity

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

  • A new Google data centre in Uruguay
  • Approved after reformulation to air cooling

Recorded

  • Original design: about 7.6 million litres of drinking water a day
  • Planned during a national water crisis
  • Approved design: air cooling, about one third of the capacity
  • Air cooling shifts water demand to electricity generation; the indirect share is not reported by Google

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

  1. 2024Claimant won
    Approval of Google's reformulated Canelones data centre
    Government of Uruguay (environmental authorisation) · Regulatory · Google (applicant) →

    Uruguay approved a reformulated project using air cooling and about one third of the originally planned capacity. BNamericas

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 water use, original design
7.6m L/day
Drinking water
Approved design
Air-cooled
About one third of original capacity
Indirect water through electricity
Not reported
US estimate: about 12× direct use

What we don't know

Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
No court case

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.

Record

  • Not disclosed The electricity demand of the approved design and the water used to generate it: not published.
  • None on record The original approval history and which authority approved the reformulated design: not detailed in the source record.
  • None on record The source record gives the same daily figure (7.6 million litres) for Google's Uruguayan and Chilean projects; the figure has not been cross-checked against permit documents.

Did the harm stop?

The approved design uses air cooling instead of drinking water. Part of the water demand moves to electricity generation.

Who paid?

Not quantified.

Sources

Voices on record: — Company or project✓ Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers

Government and regulators

  1. Informe de déficit hídrico
    Presidencia de la República, Uruguay · 2023-08-23

Press and investigations

Connected cases

Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
Terms used on this page

Science and environment

Air cooling and evaporative cooling
Two ways of cooling data centres: evaporative systems consume water, air cooling uses far less water but more electricity.
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