Most info on data centers being pushed by the media is BS. I develop these facilities for a living and we use closed loop cooling systems using de-ionized water that may be replaced once a year at best, community impact, none. Our power mostly comes from solar and utility scale battery systems again community impact, none. I do have an issue with the Meta and Google’s of the industry building these mega centers that are extremely disruptive to the communities they are in, you cannot come into a community like Godzilla stomping over Tokyo and expect everyone to accept what you want . AI is here but we can live and work with it to our benefit or try to fight it like carriage makers fought the motor car. Our world is changing and we need to use it to our advantage.
Exactly. The data center developers could avoid a lot of backlash with better outreach, community involvement, and sensitivity to siting. But they are in a hurry.
My perception is of course skewed by where I live, but from where I sit it seems like the industry giants find a workable jurisdiction in which they can flip the county supervisors to create an opening. They then pile in as fast as possible to get as much permitted as possible before any local reaction can get organized. It's like the classic blitzkrieg in WWII; probe widely, find a weak spot, smash through and overrun the rear areas before the enemy can respond. Godzilla stomping over Tokyo is a good way to put it.
Mindless NIMBYism is not an appropriate response, but a little front end consultation and sensitivity to scale and siting would go a long way.
This long predates data centers, of course. The same thing happens with regard to massive rezoning of huge housing developments in rural areas, or uncontrolled sprawl development of awful shopping mall and office park corridors that appear almost overnight when the county commissioners or board of supervisors flips from 4-3 to 3-4 and decades worth of careful negotiation and balanced planning gets tossed in the wastebasket. Around here, we very often see political balance flipping back in the next election when the locals realize what the new guys are doing, but by then it's often too late.
I suspect part of the problem is that Meta, Google, and the other giants are outsiders parachuting in these developments before the locals even know they've been targeted. The C Suite execs in charge live 1,500 miles away, half the company is H-1b Indian expats, the PR firm is in NYC or LA or Chicago, and the local lawfirm that fronts the community interface piece has the only folks who have any local knowledge. The tech bros might as well be alien invaders.