Inside Amazon’s approach to data center sustainability: A conversation with Brandon Oyer

Amazon has been talking publicly about how it powers and cools its data centers, and some of it touches on things happening in local grids and water systems. The company says it pays the full cost of electricity and grid upgrades for its data centers rather than passing those costs to other customers' bills. It points to two examples: in Indiana, utility Indiana Michigan Power cut base rates for customers, citing added revenue from large customers like Amazon, and in Mississippi, Entergy plans to invest an extra $300 million in grid improvements at no added cost to customers, which it expects will cut power outages in half over five years.

Amazon is also investing in nuclear power, including small modular reactors (SMRs) — smaller nuclear plants built in stages rather than one huge unit — as a way to add carbon-free electricity to the grid, through a $500 million investment in a company called X-energy.

On water, Amazon says it has cut its data centers' water use effectiveness by 52% since 2021 and is aiming to be "water positive" by 2030, meaning it would return more water to communities than it uses. It's shifting toward recycled water (treated sewage) instead of drinking water for cooling, and funding water projects in places like Mississippi (helping farmers use less irrigation water), Mexico, and Oregon, where a $235 million investment is meant to reduce reliance on groundwater. None of this requires anything from homeowners directly, but it may show up as changes in local utility rates or water infrastructure in areas near new data centers.