Data centers are being proposed in towns and counties across the country. They are the buildings where the internet and artificial intelligence physically live: large facilities full of computers that need a steady supply of power, and a way to keep that equipment cool.
Conversations about them often start with a yes or a no. This post starts somewhere else. Whether a data center is a good fit for a community depends on the details, and the details come out through good questions.
Why the questions matter now
In 2023, data centers used about 4.4 percent of all electricity in the United States. A report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory projects that share could reach 6.7 to 12 percent by 2028. The width of that range says something on its own: even at the national level, the future demand is uncertain.
At the local level, a single large facility can mean a new substation, new transmission lines and, depending on the cooling design, significant water use drawn from the same sources that serve homes and farms. These are long term decisions. The questions below are a way to make them with clear eyes.
1. What information will be public, and when?
This is the question underneath all the others. Local officials are often asked to sign non-disclosure agreements early in talks with a developer. Those agreements can keep details like how much water or power the project will use out of public view. Several states are now considering rules that would require data centers to report their water use.
Benchmark determined by who?
Some confidentiality during early negotiation is normal in economic development. The useful question is when it ends. A community can ask for a clear point in the process when the core numbers become public, before any final vote.
2. How much water, and from where?
Cooling systems vary a lot. Some use large amounts of water through evaporation. Others use closed loops or air cooling that use far less. Worth asking:
- What cooling system is planned, and how much water will it use in a typical year and a peak summer?
- Does the water come from the same supply as homes and farms?
- What is the plan in a drought year?
3. How much power, and who pays for the grid upgrades?
A large facility can require new substations and transmission lines. Those costs are shared in different ways in different places. Worth asking:
Who are you willing to upset?
- How much power will the site need at full build out?
- What are the power sources, and is there a plan to add new clean supply rather than only drawing on the existing grid?
- Who pays for the new infrastructure: the developer, the utility, or all customers through their bills?
- Can the facility reduce its demand during heat waves or cold snaps, when the grid is most stretched?
4. Where does the heat go?
Every data center turns electricity into heat. In most places, that heat is simply released into the air. It doesn’t have to be.
In Finland, waste heat from two new Microsoft data centers is being connected to a district heating system that serves about 250,000 people in and around Espoo, and is expected to supply roughly 40 percent of the area’s heat. Nearby buildings, greenhouses, pools and industrial users can all be potential partners. A community can ask whether heat reuse was considered, and what it would take.
5. What does the site need in an emergency?
Most data centers rely on backup generators, often diesel, and some on large battery systems. Both are reasonable engineering choices. Both also belong in the local emergency plan. Worth asking:
- How many generators or batteries, and how often are they tested or run?
- What are the air quality limits?
- Has the local fire department reviewed the site and the equipment?
- Is the site itself exposed to flooding, heat or wildfire?
6. What does the community gain over time?
The benefits are real and worth measuring clearly. Worth asking:
- How many permanent jobs, after construction ends?
- What is the expected tax revenue, net of any incentives, over the life of the project?
- Are community benefits tied to specific, measurable commitments?
- What happens to the site at the end of its useful life?
What a sustainable data center community could look like
Put the answers together and a picture starts to form. A community that publishes water and power use regularly, in plain language. Cooling that doesn’t compete with drinking water. Heat that warms something useful. Operations that ease off when the grid is under strain. A site that fits into local emergency plans. Benefits that can be tracked year after year.
How do we translate data in a human way?
None of this requires a community to be for or against data centers. It only requires asking the same questions we would ask of any major piece of infrastructure, and making sure the answers are shared with the people who will live alongside it.
Transparency is not an obstacle to building these facilities well. It is how a community gets there.