Six Maryland organizations across five counties formed the Maryland Data Centers Analysis Group (MDCAG) earlier this month, to shed light on the state’s growing data center industry.

Data centers are a quickly growing industry in Maryland with more than 40 built across the state. These facilities can consume 1,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy per square meter, or 10 times as much as the average household.

Data centers produce a great deal of heat and much of their power consumption goes towards cooling the machines. Water based cooling is commonly used, where a medium sized data center can consume 300,000 gallons of water per day. In contrast, larger centers can consume upwards of 5,000,000 gallons. That’s the water use of 50,000 people.

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