Data centers were in Lancaster County years before current AI boom

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, has a history with data centers that extends beyond the recent surge in demand driven by artificial intelligence. Smaller, colocation data centers have been operating in the county for years, largely unnoticed by the public. Lumen Technologies operates a 5,000-square-foot data center at 1720 Hempstead Road in East Lampeter Township, which was built in the early 2000s. This facility, one of Lumen's more than 175 across North America, is designed for network connectivity and colocation, linking businesses and cloud platforms, rather than supporting the intensive computational demands of AI. It uses far less electricity and little to no water for cooling compared to the massive 450,000-square-foot AI data center under construction nearby. Similarly, other colocation data centers exist in the county, including one operated by Lancaster Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13 and another by Uniti in Ephrata. Uniti's 5,000-square-foot center on Akron Road consumes an average of 725 kW and utilizes three backup generators. These third-party data centers, often used by industries like healthcare and e-commerce for secure off-site data storage, have faced increased competition from cloud services but remain crucial for many businesses. Harvard Business School professor Shane Greenstein notes that such data centers, while essential, typically operated quietly until the recent boom in demand.