Study Of Data Center Water Consumption In South Korea Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends & Forecasts (2025 - 2030)

Study Of Data Center Water Consumption In South Korea Market Trends and Insights

Adoption of Two-Phase Liquid Immersion Cooling

Two-phase immersion cooling replaces conventional chiller loops by submerging servers in dielectric fluid that vaporizes at low temperature, thereby eliminating large volumes of make-up water previously needed for heat rejection. Korean pilots report Power Usage Effectiveness as low as 1.02 and rack densities surpassing 100 kW per cabinet—figures unattainable with legacy water-cooled systems.^{[1]Min-Soo Kim, “Immersion Cooling Cuts PUE to 1.02”, Samsung Electronics, samsung.com} Commercial deployments accelerate as hyperscalers recognise total energy savings of 30-50% and the regulatory relief that comes from drastically lower water withdrawals in Seoul and Busan.

Shift from Potable to Grey-/Seawater Sourcing

Alternative sourcing addresses rising tariffs and municipal quotas. Coastal campuses channel seawater through titanium-plate exchangers, achieving coefficients of performance near 4.8 and removing freshwater from the equation.^{[2]David Chernicoff, “Ulsan LNG Cold Energy Project Lowers Water Use”, Light Reading, lightreading.com} Greywater reuse spreads in Seoul where tertiary-treated effluent is piped to ICT parks at 60–70% lower cost than potable supply, supported by subsidies that underwrite capital expenditure on ultrafiltration and UV polishing units.

Government-Mandated WUE Disclosure for Hyperscalers

New rules oblige facilities above 20 MW to publish annual WUE in line with ISO/IEC 30134-9:2022, transforming water consumption into a publicly benchmarked metric.^{[3]ISO Technical Committee 30134, “ISO/IEC 30134-9:2022 Water Usage Effectiveness”, ISO, iso.org} Average Korean WUE of 1.8 L/kWh now sits well above international best practice of 0.4 L/kWh, prompting retrofits such as air-side economizers that trim water demand by over 40% during temperate months.

AI-Optimised Cooling Algorithms Reducing Make-Up Water

Machine-learning control loops ingest sensor data to predict thermal loads and modulate set-points every few seconds. Demonstrations at leading cloud sites indicate 56.1% lower energy use and up to 30% reduction in evaporative losses versus static control strategies. By dynamically lifting chilled-water temperatures in cooler seasons, facilities gain additional water savings without sacrificing uptime.

Tightening Groundwater-Extraction Quotas

The National Groundwater Monitoring Network shows falling aquifer levels, leading regulators to cap industrial abstraction. New data-center permits now require recharge offsets or alternative supply, forcing builders toward seawater or advanced closed-loop cooling. Operators circumvent restrictions by installing dewatering heat-pump systems that recycle foundation seepage as coolant, improving overall COP by up to 30%.

Escalating Wastewater-Discharge Fees

Fee hikes tied to effluent volume and quality elevate operating costs for blow-down streams that can top 1,000 m³/day in mega-facilities. On-site zero-liquid-discharge skids recover 95% of cooling water through reverse osmosis and crystallisers, but raise energy consumption 15–25%, challenging ROI calculations.

Segment Analysis

By Source of Water Procurement: Alternate Supplies Gain Ground

Potable supply delivered 55.7% of the data center water consumption market share in 2024, signalling operators’ continued preference for reliability. The alternate-source segment, however, is forecast to post a 17.4% CAGR, the fastest within the data center water consumption market. Large coastal builds already rely on filtered seawater, while greywater uptake accelerates inside Seoul where municipal pipe networks reach major ICT parks. Seawater systems provide 15–20% efficiency gains and eliminate municipal allocation disputes. Greywater reuse faces infrastructure shortages outside the capital, yet subsidy schemes and stricter potable quotas will push adoption into secondary cities over the next three years.

The segment’s rise is underpinned by performance gains. Lab trials show indirect seawater chillers operating with COP near 4.8 versus 3.2–3.8 for freshwater units. Greywater systems using membrane bioreactors achieve turbidity below 1 NTU, meeting ASHRAE Class W1 cooling-tower criteria. Rainwater harvesting remains marginal but attractive for hyperscaler campuses with large roof areas, especially where storm-water fees can be offset against storage investments. Overall, diversifying supply shields operators from tariff volatility and strengthens ESG credentials inside the data center water consumption market.

By Data Center Type: Hyperscalers Redefine Demand

Colocation retained 45.3% of 2024 consumption, yet cloud platforms will outgrow every other cohort at an 18.9% CAGR through 2030. Hyperscalers build contiguous blocks of 80–100 MW, collapsing what once took dozens of enterprise rooms into single campuses. This clustering makes water infrastructure a project-critical path item, prompting early engagement with utilities and, increasingly, direct investments in desalination or district-cooling loops. Enterprise sites remain steady but consolidate footprints via hybrid-cloud shifts, moderating their incremental water draw within the data center water consumption market.

Hyperscalers leverage scale to pilot advanced cooling. The 100 MW AWS-SK campus in Ulsan couples LNG regasification cold energy with seawater exchangers in a closed-loop, cutting freshwater needs to zero. Colocation landlords respond by deploying shared cooling towers sized for diurnal peaks, pushing WUE toward 0.9 L/kWh. Smaller enterprise facilities adopt modular edge units below 2 MW that use refrigerant loops and consume negligible water, but these account for a shrinking share of aggregate consumption as cloud elasticity attracts new AI workloads.

By Data Center Size: Mega-Scale Projects Lead Growth

Large campuses between 10 MW and 25 MW presently represent 39.4% of the data center water consumption market size. Mega-facilities exceeding 50 MW, including the planned 3 GW cluster in Jeollanam-do, are projected to achieve a 19.3% CAGR to 2030, becoming the dominant sink for cooling water. At these scales, developers negotiate multi-decade supply contracts and co-finance municipal treatment plants to secure capacity ahead of construction.

Mega-projects integrate district-cooling and waste-heat recovery, using ammonia absorption chillers or hydrogen-driven fuel-cell stacks that nearly eliminate evaporative loss. Samsung’s hydrogen-powered proof-of-concept reduced total site water use by 70% compared with traditional evaporative towers. Medium facilities from 1 MW to 10 MW adopt air-cooled chillers where climate allows, but their aggregated contribution to national demand slips as hyperscaler clusters absorb the bulk of new AI compute.

Geography Analysis

Roughly 60% of national consumption concentrates in the Seoul metropolitan area, benefitting from fiber density and proximity to corporate headquarters. Seoul’s city government offers capital rebates covering up to 30% of greywater-pipeline installation, accelerating closure of potable loops for ICT parks. Even with efficiency gains, absolute volumes in the capital keep rising, pressuring the Han River supply grid and leading to allocation quotas that slow permits for new halls.

Coastal hubs—Busan, Incheon, and Ulsan—record faster expansion than the national average as seawater cooling sidesteps inland freshwater stress. Busan leverages its submarine-cable gateways, yet resident opposition to aquifer withdrawals obliges operators to tap deep-sea intakes several kilometres offshore. Incheon’s Songdo district ties data-center chillers into regional district-energy networks, sharing excess cooling with commercial towers and cutting combined WUE to 0.7 L/kWh. Ulsan’s LNG infrastructure furnishes free cold energy, slashing chiller loads and attracting AI clusters that would otherwise face water moratoria inland.

Secondary provinces such as Jeollanam-do and Chungbuk offer inexpensive land and renewable-energy proximity, but lack greywater mains or high-capacity transmission. The planned 3 GW Jeollanam-do complex bundles dedicated desalination and 400 kV grid tie-ins to overcome these deficits. While rural sites can tap local groundwater more easily, tightening extraction quotas and seasonal recharge variability push developers toward closed-loop or hybrid dry coolers, tempering growth until infrastructure scales.