From Georgia to Essex, AI datacenters are testing public goodwill Frenzied demand for AI development is driving a wave of datacenter construction, but new projects are facing growing public opposition over concerns about their impact on local communities and the environment. Controversy has erupted in Coweta County, Georgia, after climate advocacy group DeSmog alleged that county officials …
"The panel of industry representatives felt there is a need for education..."
Along the lines of "either let us tap into your already overextended grid and jack up prices for everyone or we'll build fossil fuel plants ourselves and destroy the environment."
That kind of education?
The broader concerns about energy useage aside because its not a local question, a datacentre is about the most benign industrial neighbour one could have. No fumes, little traffic, little noise and so on. Would they rather have an incinerator? Steel plant? Nuclear power plant? Recycling plant?
@Johnb89
"Would they rather have an incinerator? Steel plant? Nuclear power plant? Recycling plant?"
I am guessing they would like a grassy field to have a commune then wonder why they live in the dark ages. I think they should make claims like in the other reg article where the datacentre will be powered by wind and solar until you get half way down the article to see its really gas.
I wouldn't mind living next to a nuclear power plant. I mean I almost do what with Harwell and Culham being nearby, or at least their ghosts; and I still have a pair of AERE tweezers: God knows what they were previously used for, but I still use them to pluck my eyebrows because decent tweezers are impossible to find.
No fumes, little traffic, little noise
Funny I've seen complaints about all three. Musk's xAI datacenter in Memphis illegally installed a bunch of gas turbines violating air quality ordinances and residents said they couldn't open their windows because the smell was noxious.
I've seen multiple articles from different places complain about all the traffic during construction - they build these things quickly so it is a LOT of trucks coming and going 24x7. Probably damaging the roads they're taking that in rural areas are seeing orders of magnitude more heavy traffic than they typically do.
Noise was also a problem with Musk's datacenter, and anywhere that has diesel backup generators have a LOT of noise since those are typically run monthly, and of course if there is a power outage they may be run for an extended period of time creating both noise and air quality problems.
I live on a rather large lake somewhere in the middle of the US, and would absolutely support a modern nuclear power plant at the lake.
By live on, I mean 20 acres with shoreline, house in the middle. When the rains are heavy, part of my land is underwater, but my house is higher than the dam that makes the lake.
The data center itself is not the actual problem, resource usage is. If they want the data center that's fine, so long as they.are required to provide ALL their own power independent of the grid (no connection allowed) and are required to use a closed, nontoxic coolant cooling system. Connecting a water main to the inlet and a septic main to the outlet not allowed.
That's frigging huge. That's probably half the size of the local town.
And what happens if when the AI bubble bursts and Amazon/Google/Meta/Microsoft decide they don't need it any more?
We've already got enormous shitbox superstore buildings turning into eyesores after Walmart/Home Depot/Lowe's decide they don't want them any more and just simply leave them there. You can't sell/rent/repurpose them because they're cheap shit construction and are too large for anyone else's needs. They end up hanging on for 5-10 years before they're torn down at local gov't expense, and then you have basically a huge flat pavement death plain. We have those here that are still a scar on the land 20 years after they were torn down.
And this is an order of magnitude larger.
Since my initial answer didn't post, empty stuff can be indoor MTB parks or mushroom farms. Where I live some big boxes reincarnate, the Shopko discount store is now a Winco supermarket and all the better for it. I do wonder what the empty stores down the street will become. FWIW I live in the middle of Oregon so cloud data centers have been around for years because low value agricultural land and hydro power are cheap and some of the data centers are largely air cooled.
How is it that Walmart/Home Depot/Lowe's can get away with building a store, realise it's not profitable and then just walk away and leave it to the local taxpayers to clean up afterwards?
Oh, of course, you're in the USA and corporate responsibility is something which doesn't exist.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
