The Challenge
The explosive growth in artificial intelligence is one of the main factors driving demand for energy-intensive data centers across the country. A US Department of Energy-backed study found that data center energy consumption could triple by 2028. With these massive facilities come heavy environmental costs.
The Current State of Data Centers in the U.S.
Data centers are buildings used to store computers and hardware systems. Data centers aren’t a new concept – some of the earliest examples can be traced back to the 1940’s (known as mainframes, at the time). However, modern data centers look vastly different from their predecessors.
Early data centers can be compared to the size of a small home. Today, data centers often look like expansive warehouses. The largest data center campus by physical footprint in the U.S. today is Meta’s Prineville data center in Oregon which spans about 106 acres. Even modern data centers can vary greatly in size though, depending on the type of data center.
Data centers aren’t new, but the number of new data center projects popping up across the country is unprecedented. The US currently has more than 3,000 operational data centers nationwide, with 1,500 new data centers in progress. The US is not only seeing growth in the sheer number of new projects, but in the size of these projects as well. The recently announced 40,000 acre data center project in Box Elder County would be 370 times larger than Meta’s Prineville data center.
The Environmental Impacts
Data centers cause extensive impacts to our air, water, land, and climate. Click the dropdowns below to learn more.
Data centers need energy to power their core functions of computing, processing, and storing data. Some projections show that data centers could account for up to 21% of overall global energy demand by 2030. A single data center can consume as much energy as 2,000 homes annually. Without regulations, and restrictions on types of energy consumption, data centers will likely continue to use fossil fuels, natural gas, diesel generators, and, down the road, nuclear power.
The demand for energy driven by data centers is leading utilities to extend the life of coal plants and build new gas-fired power plants. Some researchers estimate that, given the current rate of AI growth, AI computing could release up to 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by 2030 (the equivalent of 10 million more cars on the road).
Data centers require water to cool down servers and keep equipment from overheating. Typically, larger data centers require more water. Some data centers currently use as much as 500,000 gallons of water per day, but new AI data centers could use up to millions of gallons of water per day.
Although data centers use cooling systems to regulate the temperature of servers and equipment, those cooling systems and equipment still produce excess heat which has the potential to create a warming effect for local environments. In the case of the proposed 40,000 acre Box Elder County data center in Utah, estimates show that local temperatures could increase up to five degrees fahrenheit during the day and up to 28 degrees fahrenheit at night.
Complete Our Action Alert Below!
Data center growth is ramping up and the environmental impacts are extensive (and in some cases, not fully understood). Meanwhile, the Trump administration is looking to accelerate the construction of data centers and the EPA recently proposed a plan to allow certain data center construction to begin before obtaining required air quality permits.
Take action below to ask your Congressperson to pause new data center approval until they can establish safeguards to protect communities from the impacts to our air, water, climate, and energy costs, and ensure that the public is involved in the decision-making process.
- Spread the Word: Share this alert with friends, family, and your network. The more people are aware of these threats, the stronger our collective voice.
- Stay Informed: Follow HEAL Utah for updates and further actions you can take to protect our environment and community.
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