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Data centres
India's data centre capacity has gone from 375 MW in 2020 to about 1.57 GW, and the Central Electricity Authority expects data centres to want 17 GW by 2031-32. The strain is local rather than national: a large facility draws millions of litres a day for cooling, and the new capacity is going up in water stressed States whose incentive packages ask for no water disclosure at all.
How much capacity India has, and how fast it is growing
375 MWInstalled capacity in 2020
1.57 GWInstalled capacity in August 2026
Nearly 8 GWCapacity projected for 2030
17 GWData centre demand expected by the Central Electricity Authority for 2031-32
Where the environmental cost sits
- A data centre needs uninterrupted power and constant cooling, and those two demands are its environmental cost.
- A 100 MW data centre uses about 2 million litres of water a day.
How efficiency is measured and required
Bureau of Indian Standards
- Power Usage Effectiveness
- Carbon Usage Effectiveness
- Cooling Efficiency Ratio
- Water Usage Effectiveness
Building codes
- Energy Conservation Building Code 2017
- Energy Conservation and Sustainable Building Code 2024
Advanced cooling
- Direct-to-chip liquid cooling
- Adiabatic cooling
- Immersion cooling
How they are financed and powered
- Data centres gained infrastructure status through the Harmonised List of Infrastructure in 2022-23.
- The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act lets future Small Modular Reactors supply them.
What has happened
2 Sep 2026
The boom was set against the climate reality of the places the new capacity is landing in.
- Facilities are clustering in water stressed Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Telangana.
- State incentives require neither water disclosure nor a grid impact assessment.
9 Aug 2026
The clearance threshold for a data centre was spelt out, and the water behind a chatbot conversation was measured.
- Clearance is needed only where the centre forms part of a building project over 20,000 sq m or a township.
- It is granted by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority.
- A 20 to 50 exchange conversation with a chatbot may use about half a litre of water.
The Hindu, 9 Aug 2026: Hidden environmental cost of powering growing digital and AI world (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 12 Aug 2026: Data centres: power, water and environmental clearance (opens in a new tab)