Amazon has partnered with the French utility company Veolia to reduce data center water use and support water-reuse technology across its operations in Mississippi.

The partnership will see the companies collaborate on the use of reclaimed water for cooling purposes, with the first facility to deploy the system expected to be operational in 2027. As part of the tie-up, Veolia will deploy autonomous containerized treatment systems that transform effluent from nearby wastewater treatment plants and other available sources into cooling water that meets the high standards required for industrial cooling for data centers.

Once operational, the project is expected to reuse more than 83 million gallons of potable water per year. According to the partners, the modular nature of Veolia’s solution will permit scalable deployment and repeatability across Amazon’s global portfolio of data centers. The project is part of Veolia’s Data Center Resource 360, which was formally launched last month.

“We are delighted to collaborate with Amazon to secure its water needs in Mississippi while protecting the local community’s resources – this is environmental security in action. By combining Veolia’s water expertise with Amazon’s AI technologies, we’re transforming data centers into engines of innovation for sustainability. This solution builds on our newly launched offering for data centers,” said Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO at Veolia.

In addition to the wastewater project, Amazon Web Services will support Veolia in developing AI-enhanced solutions for water treatment. This will include real-time process optimization, predictive maintenance, and operational intelligence in order to maximize efficiency and reduce resource consumption across Veolia’s global network.

“Through our collaborative work on AI applied to water treatment, Veolia will be able to further drive innovation and enhance the efficiency of on-site teams – thanks to automated analytics, actionable recommendations, optimized inventory management, and streamlined maintenance. We’re pleased to join forces with Veolia to advance more sustainable water use strategies while helping it pioneer more efficient water treatment solutions for customers worldwide,” stated Will Hewes, Amazon’s global water stewardship lead.

Amazon has undertaken several projects to support greater water sustainability across its data center footprint over recent years. Most recently, the company partnered with a range of water sustainability stakeholders to form the Water-AI Nexus Center of Excellence.

The center will focus on developing sustainable water practices for AI infrastructure and exploring the use of AI to address global water challenges.

Prior to this, last June, the company announced that it was expanding the number of locations using treated wastewater for data center cooling from 20 to 120.