Data Centers Threaten Western Water Supplies, Power Grids

A budding data center industry is sapping the West’s power and water resources, writes Jonathan Thompson in High Country News.

The massive server banks that run nearly every aspect of our digital world churn away in warehouse-like buildings in Phoenix, Las Vegas, rural Washington and Wyoming, each gobbling as much electricity as a small city to process AI queries, cryptocurrency extraction and other aspects of our increasingly cloud-based society.

Thompson notes that “Even when data centers employ dedicated solar, wind or geothermal, they’re taking resources from other users, upending utilities’ planning and prompting them to build yet more natural gas plants while keeping nuclear and coal plants running — and polluting — well past their scheduled retirements.” While some AI companies are building dedicated solar installations to offset their energy use, most Western states still rely largely on coal and natural gas for their energy grids. 

Western states are responding in different ways: some, like Oregon, are trying to hold data centers accountable for their energy use. Others are incentivizing data centers to locate there in hopes they will bring jobs and new tax revenue.