What is a data center used for? Where are they in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania has identified at least 100 proposed data centers and launched a public permit tracker showing project locations and environmental permit status. The facilities have become a political issue because of concerns about electricity costs, water use, environmental impacts and effects on local communities.
Pennsylvania officials have launched a public Data Center Permit Tracker as the state faces proposals for at least 100 data center projects. The tracker allows residents to view proposed locations and follow the status of environmental permits, while existing facilities are concentrated around the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh regions.
The article explains that data centers support services including cloud computing, online banking, streaming, storage and government systems, and are not limited to artificial intelligence workloads. A proposed Amazon campus in Indiana County and projects in Beaver and Lackawanna counties are among the developments drawing attention. Gov. Josh Shapiro’s executive order requires developers to pay the full energy costs of their projects and meet environmental, transparency and community-benefit requirements.