Arizona's thirsty data centers strain power grid

The article reports that Arizona is in the midst of a massive data center construction boom, with 160 facilities planned, making it the seventh largest data center hot spot in the nation. From a Google Cloud storage facility in Mesa to eight Compass data centers near downtown Phoenix, these data centers are putting a strain on the environment, utility companies, and local communities. Sandy Bahr, director of the Grand Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club, said the race to keep up with data demand and the centers being built to do it are concerning. Data centers currently consume about 4% of the nation's energy, a figure expected to grow with the proliferation of artificial intelligence and cloud storage facilities. Beyond a sharp increase in energy consumption, data centers also require a lot of water for cooling. Bahr argued the data storage sector is growing faster than existing infrastructure can keep pace, and she questioned whether these are the right industries to be inviting in, given their environmental impact. There are currently 29 data storage facilities under construction in Arizona, nearly all of them in the Phoenix metro area. Storage companies said they are trying to keep pace with increasing demand, but the Sierra Club is working to educate the public and enlist community support to address the growing environmental demands of these facilities.