Posted on 08/28/2026 4:06:42 PM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
It’s all about how and where.
It seems that everyone is talking about data centers these days; they’ve taken over the Internet with memes and conspiracy theories. As a computer professor, I decided to apply an academic research regimen to the situation and cut through the exaggeration and emotion that often accompany these current polarizing issues.
Two important points to begin with: AI’s water and power usage. As I have demonstrated in my previous article, data centers use about 0.02% of the water supply in the US according to recent sources, and most future data centers are already planned to use advanced cooling technology that requires very little water. While it is true that data centers require a lot of electricity, their impact on power systems and customers has been greatly exaggerated. Bloomberg’s often-cited piece on the subject mentions that at the highest instance, one area of the country experienced a 267% increase in wholesale costs. This data describing one area in one instance has been used incorrectly to state that it is the expected or average raise (rather than the high end), and it doesn’t even account for the fact that this is wholesale power costs, which does not translate directly into consumer costs. (Often the tech companies will offset these increases.) What this data does tell us is that there are places where we simply should not build data centers. This is one problem that should be avoided. The other problem is companies acting unethically.
One of the most egregious examples of unethical data center implementation is xAI’s Colossus near Memphis, Tennessee...
(Excerpt) Read more at fee.org ...
The mania against data centers is fueled by ChYneze propaganda.
These facilities aren't charging more or less for service to foreigners even though they were built here, that's very odd.
Other countries can and will get all of the advantages of doing nothing, that's the nature of tech, it goes to the masse either way.
I haven't seen any direct evidence, but it certainly makes all kinds of sense. But I also allow for the idea that people are really just this boneheaded these days.
Google AI (it’s bias is definitely NOT against datacenters) says:
“A gigawatt (1,000-megawatt) data center continuously consumes 1,000 megawatts of electrical power—enough to supply roughly 800,000 average American homes—and uses anywhere from 2 million to over 10 million gallons of water per day depending on its cooling design.”
Facts.
I say again, just apply the same rules to them as to other businesses.
see post 8
Very interesting, yes.
The truth about data centers are that they’re not being built for our benefit. The propaganda for and against is telling.
JZelle wrote: “The truth about data centers are that they’re not being built for our benefit. The propaganda for and against is telling.”
That simply isn’t true. You use a data center every time you use the internet. If you use Amazon, you use a data center. If you use Uber, you use a data center. If you use a cell phone, GPS in your car, you use a data center. If you shop on line for groceries, you use a data center.
Yep.
L
Yes and yes. Of course they do...
The reason this issue is a big deal is BECAUSE the Chinese want to win the AI war and that can only be done if they can knee cap our AI efforts - and the easiest way is to stop data centers.
During World War II many American women worked in munitions factories while our men fought the war - and they often worked around toxic chemicals. If our press and population were as gullible then as they are now Germany could have shut down our factories with 'great concern' about American women's health... fed to the 'press' by people who wanted to harm the war effort. . Of course the press wasn't gullible back then and Gobbles was clueless compared to modern day opponents.
This was a nicely written balanced piece. Too bad the writer didn't ask himself how and why this issue became the focus of the MSM... and so quickly.
It is interesting that there is such hysteria regarding data centers when there was little to none regarding bitcoin miners that use a tremendous amount of electricity.
In other words, you have no idea how much of your life already depends on large business data centers: banking, health care, insurance, telecom...
The ship sailed decades ago, but it has become far more energy efficient; what used to fit in a warehouse now fits in a closet.
Beijing is out there sowing the seeds of discord so they can get the lead in this sector because they know it’s so vital that whoever gets out in front on this will never have any use for rearview mirrors.
It reminds me of the Russian funding of deep green organizations in Europe to de-industrialize them.
I hope you are not paying extra for that bit of AI?
The Chicago metro area has ~160 data centers; inside Chicago proper are 40.
Chicagoland area (and the surrounding Northern Illinois region served by Commonwealth Edison) is approximately 24 Gigawatts (GW). Its all-time record peak demand was 23.7 GW, which was set during a major heatwave. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/20/comed-four-year-grid-increased-electric-demand/
A nearby suburb, Elk Grove Village, IL, has 20 operational data centers and 5 more under construction.
No power outages and no water shortages.
The water consumption you state is more like one years amount, not for one day.
To date, only four data centers consume over a GW: three in the USA and one in China.
China’s Intelligent Computing Center is reported to be fully operational and consumes 1.2 GW of power annually to run heavy AI training and inference.
xAI Colossus (Memphis, TN): Elon Musk’s xAI cluster rapidly scaled its first phases using 200,000 Nvidia GPUs. The phase-two expansion (Colossus 2) is explicitly targeting over 1 GW of capacity and 1 million GPUs.
Meta Prometheus (New Albany, OH): Meta’s first gigawatt-scale campus is heavily underway. The first phases are scheduled to go online, supported by massive grid additions and a dedicated 200 MW on-site natural gas power plant.
OpenAI & Oracle “Stargate” Partnership: OpenAI has actively started running compute tasks out of its initial Stargate facility hub in Abilene, Texas. This anchors a broader initiative designed to build up 4.5 GW of cluster capacity across the country.
“The Chicago metro area has ~160 data centers; inside Chicago proper are 40.”
Size matters.
Most business datacenters today are less than 1MW.
The largest AI datacenters are sized for a gigawatt.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.