Data centers are the buildings full of computers where the internet lives, supporting everything from photos and social media to AI chatbots, and they now drive huge power and water use because each AI query requires supercomputer-class computation and generates massive heat that needs evaporative cooling.
They already consume about 5% of US power generation, with projections of 15% by 2030 and 50% by 2040, while offering relatively few long-term jobs for communities and sometimes operating under non-disclosure agreements.
Because fiber-optic networks allow data to cross the country in milliseconds, these facilities can be sited in industrial areas with proper power and networking, made more grid-friendly through flexible workloads and adjacent energy stations that use excess renewable energy and shave peak loads, and required to transparently cover their full lifetime infrastructure costs.
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/what-are-data-centers-and-why-do-they-need-so-much-power-expert-explains
They already consume about 5% of US power generation, with projections of 15% by 2030 and 50% by 2040, while offering relatively few long-term jobs for communities and sometimes operating under non-disclosure agreements.
Because fiber-optic networks allow data to cross the country in milliseconds, these facilities can be sited in industrial areas with proper power and networking, made more grid-friendly through flexible workloads and adjacent energy stations that use excess renewable energy and shave peak loads, and required to transparently cover their full lifetime infrastructure costs.
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/what-are-data-centers-and-why-do-they-need-so-much-power-expert-explains
news.uchicago.edu
What are data centers, and why do they need so much power? An expert explains
UChicago computer science Prof. Andrew A. Chien, former vice president of research at Intel, answers questions about AI, sustainability and water
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