Microsoft — Published WUE and Zero-Water Designs
Microsoft environmental sustainability reporting and datacenter blog, 2024
One of the few hyperscale operators publishing a fleet-level water metric and a specific zero-water-for-cooling design commitment. Self-reported, and stamped accordingly.
Reported metric
Microsoft has published a fleet-wide datacenter WUE of roughly 0.3 litres per kilowatt-hour in its environmental sustainability reporting, alongside absolute water consumption figures for its operations. Company disclosure; the methodology is the company's own.
Zero-water cooling design
In December 2024 Microsoft announced a next-generation datacenter design using closed-loop, chip-level liquid cooling in which water is filled once during construction and continuously recirculated, with no ongoing evaporation for cooling. The company stated the design would be used in facilities beginning construction that year, with first deployments in Phoenix, Arizona and Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. Company disclosure, dated December 2024.
What this does and does not settle
It demonstrates that zero-water-for-cooling at hyperscale is an engineering reality rather than a talking point. It does not tell us the fleet average, does not cover existing evaporative sites, does not address the indirect water in the electricity those sites consume, and applies only to one operator.
Verification note
No independent metering audit of hyperscale WUE figures is on file in this archive. Until one is, every operator figure here stays stamped COMPANY DISCLOSURE rather than DOCUMENTED FACT.