Data centers are being built across Texas every day. Here’s what goes on inside one in Austin
The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) is constructing a new data center in Round Rock, Texas, amid a significant boom in data center development across the state. This expansion highlights the growing demand for data processing, especially for AI, and the associated challenges regarding electricity and water consumption in a drought-ridden state with an unreliable power grid. The expansion also comes despite public opposition and protests against data center proposals in Texas.
The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin, is expanding its operations by constructing a new data center in Round Rock, Texas. This move is part of a broader trend seeing nearly 250 data centers planned for the state, with Texas potentially surpassing Virginia in data center capacity.
Tommy Minyard, TACC's director of advanced computing systems, recounted past challenges securing adequate space and power, highlighting the industry's rapid growth. He noted that AI-focused data centers demand significantly more land, power, and water, leading to environmental concerns and public opposition, with a recent poll showing 42% of Texans strongly oppose data centers.
KUT News, unable to secure tours from most companies in Hays, Travis, and Williamson counties, was granted access to TACC. The article describes the loud, heat-generating environment of a data center and the cooling challenges, including experiments with solar and immersion cooling. TACC's facilities support scientific research, including climate change, medicine, and space exploration, with researcher Tom Yankeelov using TACC for cancer research.
Mike Kamerlander, president and CEO of the Hays Caldwell Economic Development Partnership, explained that Texas attracts data center developers due to cheap land and a friendly regulatory environment, despite the state's drought conditions and notoriously unreliable power grid. He also expressed concerns about water usage and long-term job creation from data centers.