re: Are there any confirmed negative impacts of data centers?

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The noise complaint stems from their emergency generators, which never run except for the rare instances when they lose power, or the occasional cases in which the power company begs them to run them so that YOU don’t lose power.

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I live about 1.5 miles from a Meta data center and I can hear what I assume are the generators running every night. Been meaning to drive over one night and see how loud it actually is for the people who live directly across the road. No idea why they would be running generators every night though. doesn't sound very effecient.

On a side note I was on a flight from Dallas to Huntsville and talked to a guy who was going to Huntsville for an interview. I asked him what he does and he said he was a generator technician. I told him he needed to check out Meta near my house because they have a ton of generators lined up. He said that was exactly where he was headed. He said they were hiring a whole fleet of generator maintenance guys.

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The noise complaint stems from their emergency generators, which never run except for the rare instances when they lose power, or the occasional cases in which the power company begs them to run them so that YOU don’t lose power.

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Or the cooling towers, recirculation pumps, air coolers, or any of the myriad of moving parts required to transfer heat efficiently.

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The water complaint could be legitimate in arid climates like Arizona and Utah, but it’s silly in the eastern half of the US.

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Saltwater intrusion into aquifers and depletion of aquifers is a huge deal. As i said in an earlier post, ever data center should be required to use surface water only for their water needs.

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Local politicians are all on board with it without requiring the companies to pay higher rates for water/power which they pass along to all the residents

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Im hearing mixed opinions on if this actually happens

Apparently most pay normal market rates for power. Some pay less if they help pay for new plant

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No idea why they would be running generators every night though. doesn't sound very effecient.

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This is a good question for those involved.

If there is a power outage, do they have battery backups for the stopgap between the outage and generators? The turn on isn’t immediate.

In the hospital, when it shuts off, it takes a few seconds before things reboot via generator. Not really an issue for us, but would be a huge issue for a data center.

If the stop gap isn’t in place, running the generators, to some degree, around the clock would be appropriate, right?

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We celebrate a new paper mill, auto plant, etc., but we are hating data centers. Don't really understand it.

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Well, paper mills, auto plants, etc provide a lot of jobs, which feed lots of other spin off jobs.

How many jobs are produced at a data center? A handful?

I’m honestly not sure, which is why I’m asking.

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No idea why they would be running generators every night though. doesn't sound very effecient.

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At this point in the race to AGI, cost efficiency is of little importance. These companies have huge runways of cash and are spending it hand over fist because the first one to hit AGI will reap huge rewards over the first loser. That influx of cash/value if managed properly, will give them a competitive advantage over the competition for years. This is why they are paying ridiculous rates for electricians and other techs to get these data centers up and online.

Whether it's to meet usage needs or provide uninterrupted backup, they wil pay a dollar or more a kWh if it keeps them moving forward.

Theo Vonn has a recent podcast episode about data centers.

It's what happens outside the data center that is the issue. Basically, a data center is about the hungriest thing you can imagine in terms of both power and water relative to its footprint. So to "entice" one to come to an area, they give them all these tax exemptions and kickbacks and they get special super low energy rates. Everyone around them gets a giant power and water bill increase with a side of brown outs. All In return for a couple jobs, because many data centers are unmanned.

If your local leaders are responsible, and say that the data center needs to supply or contract with it's own power and design a closed-loop cooling solution so it only has to fillup once and then recycle 99% of the water so it wont effect the locals water bills, then the data center says kick rocks and moves to the next town so they can spend less on the project. Basically the power grid was designed to supply a certain amount of juice to keep residential power affordable, and suddenly all these data centers are opening up and sucking down more power than whole cities, and they aren't also opening new power plants - so the price is rising and peoples local bills are doubling

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Maybe some small ones. The one they are building in Delhi is one of the largest structures on earth.

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Holly Ridge, which is located between Delhi and Rayville, but yes...this is the largest construction site in the world right now. The overall footprint is roughly 4-5 miles long by about a half a mile to three quarters of a mile wide. It's a big arse site.

My house is about 4 miles, as the crew flies, from the site and the traffic is horrible, which js to be expected. I'm curious to see how it plays out over the next several years.

I am trying to sell my house now, because I don't want any part of what's going on here.

Other than using a lot of water and power, no. Some say theres a noise issue for those immediately surrounding the facility but thats no different than any of these large industrial plants.

As with anything, its NIMBY sky screamers