Environmental campaigners are fighting data centres
Julie Bolthouse
Julie Bolthouse is opposing new data centre planning applications in Northern Virginia
Environmental campaigner Julie Bolthouse points out that Northern Virginia has the world’s largest concentration of data centres. This is not something she is thrilled about.
“We’re the Wall Street of the data centre industry,” says Ms Bolthouse, who is a director of local Virginian charity and campaign group Piedmont Environmental Council.
Data centres are vast warehouses that house stacks of computers that store and process data used by websites, companies and governments.
Northern Virginia, the northern region of the state of Virginia, has been a key location for data centres since the 1990s. This is thanks to its immediate proximity to Washington DC, yet with historically cheap electricity and land prices.
Centred on the city of Ashburn, which is 35 miles (56km) west of the US capital, there are more than 477 data centres in the state. According to a recent study by business analysis firm Moody’s, global data centre capacity is expected to double over the next five years. According to a study conducted by Moody’s, the global data centre industry is expected to double in the next five year period. We’re fighting back on the ground. We oppose each data centre application, work on local zoning and try to educate the supervisors and planning commission about the problems we see. But we’re also working at the state level.”
Similar campaigns against data centres are springing up all over the world, including in the Republic of Ireland, where such facilities use 21% of the country’s electricity.
“Our main objections to data centres revolve around their potential negative impacts on our climate, their sustainability, and local infrastructure,” says Tony Lowes of Friends of the Irish Environment. When data centres use fossil fuels, they can strain the electricity grid. This could undermine national renewable energy goals. “
The group is continuing to challenge plans for a new EUR1.2bn ($1.3bn; PS1bn) data centre in County Clare on Ireland’s west coast.
Mr Lowes adds that while Friends of the Irish Environment would prefer to see data centre development halted altogether, there are various mitigations that might help, including sites prioritising renewable energy, and implementing energy and cooling efficiency measures.
Hugh Kenny
Environmental campaigners in Ashburn are unhappy about the number of electricity pylons
The big players in the global data centre industry are trying to allay people’s concerns. This summer, for example, Microsoft launched its Data Center Community Pledge.
Microsoft is promising that by next year it will procure 100% renewable energy globally. Microsoft says that it will achieve zero waste by 2030 through waste reduction, recycling, composting and reuse. It also plans to become “water-positive” by 2030. The latter means that it aims for its data centres to return more water to the local supply than they use.
Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services (AWS) already uses recycled water for cooling in 20 of its 125 data centres around the world, and also says it will be “water positive” by 2030.
Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, which represents dozens of data centre operators including Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and Meta, says that data centres are leading the way on clean energy use.
“For example, wind and solar capacity contracted to data centre providers and customers represented two-thirds of the total US corporate renewables market last year, and four of the top five purchasers of renewable energy in the US are companies that operate data centres,” he says.
“The data centre industry is also unlocking greater energy savings and efficiencies for homes, businesses, utilities, and other end users – everything from smart thermostats to grid-enhancing technologies require the digital infrastructure provided by data centres. The protests against data centers have spread to South America where campaigners claim they have had success. In Uruguay, Google, for instance, changed the design of an under-construction facility. It was initially due to be water cooled, but the US giant switched to an air-cooled system.
This followed protests in a country that has been experiencing droughts and a shortage of drinking water.
“Water use by Google in the initial proposal would have been equivalent to the daily consumption of drinking water by 55,000 people in our country,” says Maria Selva Ortiz of Friends of the Earth Uruguay.
“This threat to the right to water amidst a water crisis raised strong criticisms, leading Google to change the proposed technology to cool down its equipment, so the project was modified. Chillers will cool down with air instead of water.”
In Chile, meanwhile, Google has halted plans for a data centre over similar water use concerns.
Back in Virginia, Ms Bolthouse says the firms need to do more to boost sustainability. In the long run, she says, it will be in the industry’s own interests to improve data centres’ environmental impact.
“What’s going to happen if we continue with business as usual is that electrical prices are going to skyrocket for everybody, including the data centre industry – and that’s their biggest bill, so that’s going to impact them,” she says. The water scarcity problem will also affect them. “
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