Sustainability Matters: Data centers, what’s the big deal?
Local discussions in Pierce and St. Croix Counties, Wisconsin, are addressing the significant environmental impacts of data centers, particularly concerning their immense electricity and water consumption. Citizens in River Falls are raising concerns about the concentrated resource demands of these facilities and their potential strain on local infrastructure and natural resources. The article emphasizes the need for communities to understand and respond responsibly to the data center boom, driven by artificial intelligence.
The Pierce County Journal highlights growing local and national discussions surrounding data centers, with particular focus on community concerns in Pierce and St. Croix Counties, Wisconsin, and the City of River Falls. The article explains that data centers, though housing "The Cloud," are physical structures with substantial demands, primarily for electricity and water. According to the International Energy Agency, data centers are projected to double their global electricity consumption by 2030, with significant local impacts due to the concentrated demand.
The author details how data centers, even a 25-megawatt facility, can consume electricity and water equivalent to an entire small city, straining local power grids and water resources. The piece notes that while cooling technologies are improving, closed-loop systems increase electricity demand. Power generation, primarily thermoelectric in these counties, already accounts for 73% of Wisconsin's water use. Beyond resource consumption, data centers also require extensive infrastructure like substations and transmission lines, and create noise, light, and wastewater pollution.
The article attributes the recent surge in data center development to the demands of artificial intelligence (AI), which requires exponentially more computations and thus more energy. It urges communities to approach this development with "human effort and judgment," rather than passively accepting it. Upcoming events in River Falls are mentioned, including a speaker series on the environmental and health harms of AI data centers in Wisconsin and how communities can engage with development to align with their values.