With the rise of artificial intelligence, even tasks simpler than, say, a Google search require faster and more extensive calculations.
This is putting even more demand on internet data centers, the places that house all the servers that keep the internet running. But as Ali Rogen reports, it’s coming at a price.
The demand for data centers is growing rapidly.
However, these facilities come with significant environmental costs, particularly to the communities in which they are located.
Northern Virginia is the world’s largest data center hub.
The region handles approximately 70% of the world’s digital traffic.
Local officials say this rate is unsustainable.
Sati Kitajima-Moki is a science journalist and writer for Gras sati, a climate-focused news outlet.
We are very grateful for your participation.
First, can you tell us a bit more about what data is and why we need so much of it?
Whenever you use the Internet, you upload photos to the cloud, send emails, and watch videos.
All this data and digital information needs somewhere to be stored, and it is kept in huge facilities called data centers, each containing tens of thousands of servers that process all of this digital information on our behalf.
Approximately 70% of the world’s digital information is processed in Virginia’s data center cluster alone, with more than 5,000 facilities in the United States.
What are the environmental impacts of having some of this data?
The center is in your backyard, so you’ll need two things to process all that information.
The first, of course, is electricity for the physical process.
Another, while gigabytes of data are logged, is water. Water is used in cooling systems that physically protect servers from overheating, and researchers believe these industries are among the top 10 biggest consumers of water in the United States.
They use 2% of the electricity in the US, which is a lot, and one source said that a data centre campus could use the resources equivalent of a small city, and if there is an I-boom, usage will increase even more.
The average AI application uses six times more memory, resulting in a significant increase in thermal run-time with exponential impact.
You just need more water to cool down.
And how will these data centers, both in the U.S. and around the world, impact the global effort to decarbonize?
It’s difficult because right now we’re building green energy solutions at scale.
It’s happening really fast, but maybe not fast enough.
Currently, much of the power grid still runs on fossil fuels, and Virginia even has plans to shut it down.
You know, coal-fired power plants may not be built.
That’s because these data centers require so much energy that power grid operators would have to restart or keep coal-fired power plants running to meet all that demand.
One of the arguments of the Data Center Reform Coalition, which I spoke to, is that this is a step back from clean energy goals and a betrayal of some of the commitments that some states have made to decarbonize, and many of these data centers are located in densely populated residential areas.
What’s it like living nearby?
Well, as we all know, the buildings are being built near schools and protected natural parks, especially in Virginia, and one of the big impacts is that the buildings are very loud and buzzing, creating noise pollution in the area.
If a lot of concrete is laid down, the amount of stormwater runoff will increase significantly as it will not be able to soak into the ground.
It all has to get somewhere.
Well, that could result in more power than the grid can handle.
So when a power outage occurs, the question arises: who gets power, the residents or the data center?
We are speaking to you right now using a lot of data.
We are becoming more and more reliant on this type of cloud computing to do many different things, and the number of apps we use is growing.
We are having virtual meetings.
Such that.
Is there a way for these data centers to continue to expand and grow and support all of these uses?
But doing it in a more environmentally friendly way?
As you know, it is possible to build cooling systems that use less water.
However, we are yet to see them built on a large scale. They can also be powered by green energy.
However, currently our power grid relies on fossil fuels and we are slowly transitioning to green energy.
But we may be moving too fast to meet all this demand first, before we really know what we need to do next.
There needs to be more transparency from the industry, but scientists and activists alike tell me it’s fairly secretive.
Google has touted itself as a leader in sustainable data centers, and only began releasing its water usage data two years after the lawsuit was filed. Here’s what one Northern Virginia environmental activist had to say about that transparency:
As mentioned earlier, there are many such data centers.
One of the big things that concerns me is that some of these data center companies claim to own Federal or Department of Defense assets.
Servers are critical infrastructure and cannot be allowed to go down.
And then there’s this.
The question of who gets the water in a trout situation, are they going to use that argument about national security to claim that they get the water first?
Are there safeguards in place to ensure these companies are honest about the types of businesses they support on their servers?
And what impact does it have on the environment?
We trust companies to be transparent and do the right thing.
There are many companies out there who want to tout their sustainability goals.
But the fact is, we’re trying to pass a law in Virginia.
right now.
Several bills have been introduced in Virginia and other states, but they won’t get much attention until the necessary studies are done, so Virginia is currently conducting an impact study of the center, the results of which are expected to be released later this year.
Fortunately, there’s a lot of activity happening in Virginia, particularly with the Piedmont Environmental Council, a group that has a coalition called the Data Center Reform Coalition.
And so they’ve really started doing some community organizing work this year with hundreds of individuals and nonprofits, and they’re also working directly with lawmakers to see what they can do, how they can get a little more control over this industry.
They are also taking action through freedom of information.
The ACT will require confirmation of what other types of information are available about these data centers even before any transparency comes from the companies themselves.
Science journalist Kitajima Saji-Muruki.
We are very grateful for your participation.
wonderful.
Thank you so much for inviting me.
