Data center boom puts Texas resources in focus

Texas is facing growing concerns over the rapid expansion of data centers, driven by the AI boom, which are straining the state's water and power resources. Community backlash has swelled across Texas, with residents and elected officials expressing frustration over unregulated growth, high water consumption, strain on the power grid, impact on property values, and substantial tax breaks given to these facilities. Texas is projected to soon surpass Virginia in the number of data centers, with 741 sites currently and 309 planned, including 93 operational, under construction, or planned data centers in Austin alone, according to Baxtel, a market intelligence firm.

In response to these concerns and state regulators' inability to obtain accurate water and power usage data from most companies, Governor Greg Abbott issued a directive to freeze all new data center projects. This move aims to allow state regulators to gather necessary information on resource consumption. While a University of Texas study indicates data centers currently use less than 0.5% of the state's water, continued growth could push this to 3-9% by 2040, a significant concern for a drought-stricken state.

Dan Stanzone, executive director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas, highlighted innovative cooling solutions like immersion and direct liquid cooling, which significantly reduce or eliminate reliance on traditional water-intensive cooling methods. TACC's supercomputers utilize a closed water loop that has used the same million gallons of water since 2012. Dan Diorio from the Data Center Coalition acknowledged misconceptions about water use, noting that data centers consume less water than food and beverage production, semiconductor manufacturing, or municipal water system leaks. Despite industry efforts towards more efficient cooling, the state is pushing for better regulation and data collection to manage the impact of the data center boom.