Data centres must pay their true costs

New York placed a moratorium on large AI data centres; Senator Kirsten Gillibrand demanded guarantees on energy bills, water, and air quality.

Data centre electricity consumption reached 415 TWh in 2024, enough for 353 million Indian households; India's demand projected to rise from 10 TWh in 2025 to 191 TWh by 2040.

A 100MW data centre can consume more than two million litres of water daily, and global water footprint for data centres was about 4.5 trillion litres in 2025.

Indian data centres are likely to cluster near undersea cable landings in Mumbai and Chennai, cities lacking water resilience.

The article argues that data centres should pay their true costs, including electricity, water, and heat, rather than receiving subsidies.