Energy-Water-Land Frameworks for Data Center Siting and Operations
This white paper focuses on energy-water-land intersections for data center siting and operations.
Challenges include rapid deployment of data centers and consequential uncertainty regarding the extent these facilities may impact or be constrained by water, land, and energy resources and infrastructure. There is currently no standardized approach for analytical frameworks to inform data center siting and operations while considering energy, water, and land trade-offs.
Near-term opportunities are to characterize energy, water, and land trade-offs and impacts for data center configurations/designs; standardize approaches to evaluate water/land constraints for future data center development; identify and evaluate energy-water-land synergies associated with data center siting; develop a clearinghouse of relevant data and an open-source analytical platform.
Success measures are the design and implementation of cooling system types and configurations across new data center builds; tracked and analyzed permitting timelines for data center siting decisions; measured water consumption and watershed-level impacts data; contributions to clearinghouse of data; downloads and verified users of the tool would indicate widespread utilization.
Citation Formats
TY - DATA
AB - This white paper focuses on energy-water-land intersections for data center siting and operations.
Challenges include rapid deployment of data centers and consequential uncertainty regarding the extent these facilities may impact or be constrained by water, land, and energy resources and infrastructure. There is currently no standardized approach for analytical frameworks to inform data center siting and operations while considering energy, water, and land trade-offs.
Near-term opportunities are to characterize energy, water, and land trade-offs and impacts for data center configurations/designs; standardize approaches to evaluate water/land constraints for future data center development; identify and evaluate energy-water-land synergies associated with data center siting; develop a clearinghouse of relevant data and an open-source analytical platform.
Success measures are the design and implementation of cooling system types and configurations across new data center builds; tracked and analyzed permitting timelines for data center siting decisions; measured water consumption and watershed-level impacts data; contributions to clearinghouse of data; downloads and verified users of the tool would indicate widespread utilization.
AU - Macknick, Jordan
A2 - Schneider, Katy
A3 - Barton, Rachel
A4 - Hardikar, Mukta
A5 - Martin, Jordan
A6 - Struck, Scott
A7 - Lepley, Kai
A8 - Steward, Darlene
A9 - Smith, Faith
A10 - Levine, Aaron
A11 - Rivers, Marie
A12 - Rosenlieb, Evan
A13 - Gu, Jianyu
A14 - Podgorny, Slater
A15 - Castelao, Guilherme Pimenta
A16 - Boren, Blake
A17 - Leick, Noemi
DB - Energy-Water Resilience
DP - Open EI | National Laboratory of the Rockies
DO -
KW - Data center siting and operations
KW - energy-water-land trade-offs
KW - analytical framework
KW - data clearinghouse
KW - data center
KW - siting
KW - operations
LA - English
DA - 2026/01/16
PY - 2026
PB - NLR
T1 - Energy-Water-Land Frameworks for Data Center Siting and Operations
UR - https://ewr.openei.org/submissions/31
ER -
Macknick, Jordan, et al. Energy-Water-Land Frameworks for Data Center Siting and Operations. NLR, 16 January, 2026, Energy-Water Resilience. https://ewr.openei.org/submissions/31.
Macknick, J., Schneider, K., Barton, R., Hardikar, M., Martin, J., Struck, S., Lepley, K., Steward, D., Smith, F., Levine, A., Rivers, M., Rosenlieb, E., Gu, J., Podgorny, S., Castelao, G., Boren, B., & Leick, N. (2026). Energy-Water-Land Frameworks for Data Center Siting and Operations. [Data set]. Energy-Water Resilience. NLR. https://ewr.openei.org/submissions/31
Macknick, Jordan, Katy Schneider, Rachel Barton, Mukta Hardikar, Jordan Martin, Scott Struck, Kai Lepley, Darlene Steward, Faith Smith, Aaron Levine, Marie Rivers, Evan Rosenlieb, Jianyu Gu, Slater Podgorny, Guilherme Pimenta Castelao, Blake Boren, and Noemi Leick. Energy-Water-Land Frameworks for Data Center Siting and Operations. NLR, January, 16, 2026. Distributed by Energy-Water Resilience. https://ewr.openei.org/submissions/31
@misc{EWR_Dataset_31,
title = {Energy-Water-Land Frameworks for Data Center Siting and Operations},
author = {Macknick, Jordan and Schneider, Katy and Barton, Rachel and Hardikar, Mukta and Martin, Jordan and Struck, Scott and Lepley, Kai and Steward, Darlene and Smith, Faith and Levine, Aaron and Rivers, Marie and Rosenlieb, Evan and Gu, Jianyu and Podgorny, Slater and Castelao, Guilherme Pimenta and Boren, Blake and Leick, Noemi},
abstractNote = {This white paper focuses on energy-water-land intersections for data center siting and operations.
Challenges include rapid deployment of data centers and consequential uncertainty regarding the extent these facilities may impact or be constrained by water, land, and energy resources and infrastructure. There is currently no standardized approach for analytical frameworks to inform data center siting and operations while considering energy, water, and land trade-offs.
Near-term opportunities are to characterize energy, water, and land trade-offs and impacts for data center configurations/designs; standardize approaches to evaluate water/land constraints for future data center development; identify and evaluate energy-water-land synergies associated with data center siting; develop a clearinghouse of relevant data and an open-source analytical platform.
Success measures are the design and implementation of cooling system types and configurations across new data center builds; tracked and analyzed permitting timelines for data center siting decisions; measured water consumption and watershed-level impacts data; contributions to clearinghouse of data; downloads and verified users of the tool would indicate widespread utilization.
},
url = {https://ewr.openei.org/submissions/31},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Energy-Water Resilience, NLR, https://ewr.openei.org/submissions/31},
note = {Accessed: 2026-08-04}
}
Details
Data from Jan 16, 2026
Last updated Jan 29, 2026
Submitted Jan 16, 2026
Contact
Jordan Macknick
Authors
Keywords
Data center siting and operations, energy-water-land trade-offs, analytical framework, data clearinghouse, data center, siting, operationsDOE Project Details
Project Name White Papers on Ideas to Advance Energy-Water Resilience
Project Lead
Project Number WP-031