Rendering of Meta’s new 715,000-square-foot data center in Rosemount, Minn. Photo courtesy of Meta Platforms Inc. via tcbmag.com
By Alana Howey — League of Women Voters Roseville Area
This column was originally published in LWVA Roseville’s newsletter, “The Voter.”
You may have heard about opposition to data center projects. Why all the hoopla? Don’t we need data centers for our artificial intelligence future? Haven’t data centers been around for a long time? Concerns center around the size of the projects, contributions to light and noise pollution, the massive amounts of resources they consume and the lack of transparency in project approval.
The advent of AI has led to the need for hyperscale centers over 10,000 square feet. The average data center takes up around 100,000 square feet. Some take up 10 acres, or over 435,000 square feet— equal to six football fields— to process massive amounts of data. It has been likened to having a US Bank Stadium in your neighborhood.
The incredibly power-intensive needs of these centers put Minnesota’s 100% Carbon-Free Electricity Standard by 2040 mandate at risk. One data center uses as much power as 80,000 U.S. households, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service. Some of these projects have looked to include diesel or coal power sources as back up power! Projections also indicate that power needs may double or triple by 2028.
Furthermore, one data center uses as much water as 2,600 homes. There is great concern about deals being struck to use municipal drinking water sources to cool these towers, with no recovery or reuse. Water is Minnesota’s most precious resource and is not infinite. Aquifers have already been strained in communities with these centers in other states, their utility bills severely escalating. Why can’t these wealthy companies invest in more efficient systems just as downtown Minneapolis high rises have been required for decades?
The most disturbing issue with the influx of these projects is the secrecy about what the projects really are, such as the Hermantown, Minn. city officials signing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before the community had any input, per MPR. These projects have been hard to identify— often under the nebulous category of “light industrial development.”
Minnesota has offered sales tax exemption and credits to draw companies to locate data centers in our state. They have been viewed as a source of construction revenue, tax base and some employment, though the number of permanent jobs that data centers create is very low. There are 23 known proposals for centers in our state. Currently, there are no federal legally binding energy standards that apply explicitly to operation of data centers in the private sector, and state regulations do not offer a centralized permitting process.
The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) currently has five different lawsuits pending to slow down these projects based on lack of transparency and environmental review. The Minnesota Environmental Partnership and coalition partners are looking to get legislation in place to more adequately regulate this booming business. In the meantime, a moratorium is recommended.
While data centers have been, and will continue to be, an important component of our collective futures, we should not sacrifice our air and water for short term gain.
Resources:
- Increased grid spending — Goldman Sachs
- Data center developers — TRACT Farmington webpage, Archer Datacenters website
- Costs to consumers, electric bills, grid, stranded assets, etc. — MN Citizens’ Utility Board Comments to PUC, Oregon Public Broadcasting
- Data centers and job creation — Wall Street Journal, mirrored at archive.is
- Back-up generators Hatton Power and small modular (nuclear) plants Last Energy
