Karnataka plans 1,000 MW 'sustainable' data centre parks at Bengaluru, 2 other cities

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government decided Thursday to establish three 'sustainable' data parks at Bengaluru, Mysuru and Mangaluru with a combined capacity of 1,000 megawatts.

In March, the government announced a review of its policy on data centres amid concerns over huge environmental costs, particularly their water and energy needs. Karnataka already has 32 data centres.

Energy Minister KJ George, Industries Minister MB Patil and Information Technology Minister Priyank Kharge held a preliminary meeting with officials.

A sustainable data centre park with a capacity of 500 MW will be established near Hoskote in Bengaluru. Solar power generated at Pavagada will be supplied directly to the park. The Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has indicated that there will be no difficulty in supplying 60 million litres per day (MLD) of secondary treated water, while the industries themselves will undertake tertiary treatment, the government said.

The government has identified 350 acres belonging to the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) at the Baikampady Industrial Area in Mangaluru for the second data centre park. Suitable land will be identified in Mysuru for the third one, the ministers said in the statement.

A combined capacity of 1,000 MW, or one gigawatt, refers to the total electrical load the three data parks can draw to run servers, cooling systems and network infrastructure.

"Power and water will be provided to investors setting up data centres in these parks. The ministers directed officials to make the necessary preparatory arrangements and suggested that a meeting with potential investors be convened shortly," the statement said.

In the next phase, a committee of ministers, including Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who is in charge of water resources, will be constituted.

"The data parks will be established at the earliest," the statement quoted Patil as saying.

According to sources, the ministers discussed the challenges involved in providing uninterrupted power supply to data centres that will come up.

In March, Priyank told the Assembly that data centres were "a necessary evil" as they are key to artificial intelligence, machine learning and emerging technologies. "But data centres are also heavy water and energy guzzlers,” he said. "One megawatt needs about Rs 70 crore. One acre can yield one megawatt. We have to spend 25 million litres per megawatt per year for one data centre."

Priyank pointed out that asking five questions to ChatGPT consumes half-a-litre of water.