Environmental Activists Oppose Data Center Expansion

Environmental campaigner Julie Bolthouse highlights Northern Virginia’s distinction as home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers, a situation she finds concerning. Ms. Bolthouse, a director for the local Virginian charity and campaign group Piedmont Environmental Council, remarks, “We’re the Wall Street of the data centre industry.” Data centers are extensive warehouse-like structures housing numerous computers that store and process data for websites, businesses, and governments. Northern Virginia, located in the northern part of the state of Virginia, has been a crucial hub for data centers since the 1990s. This is due to its immediate proximity to Washington DC, combined with historically low electricity and land costs. With its focal point in Ashburn, a city 35 miles (56km) west of the US capital, the state contains over 477 data centers. This figure represents by far the highest number in the US, with Texas ranking second at 290, and California third with 283. In fact, some studies suggest that 70% of the world’s internet traffic flows through Ashburn and its surrounding region, which has been nicknamed “Data Centre Alley.” Largely propelled by the ongoing boom in artificial intelligence (AI), which demands increased computing power, the need for data centers is surging. Consequently, a recent study by the business analysis firm Moody’s predicts that global data center capacity will double within the next five years. Ms. Bolthouse and other environmentalists in Northern Virginia are against the continued growth of the data center sector in their area, asserting that it is already significantly harming their quality of life. She points to the construction of new electricity cables over conservation land, parks, and neighborhoods, increased water demand, and the impact on air quality from the facilities’ back-up diesel generators. Ms. Bolthouse also mentions that households in Virginia and neighboring Maryland are expected to help fund the electricity network upgrades required by data centers. She and her fellow campaigners are actively resisting. “We’re working directly on the ground, opposing each data centre application and working on the local zoning, and trying to educate our local planning commission and supervisors about the issues that we see. But we’re also working at the state level.” Similar campaigns against data centers are emerging worldwide, including in the Republic of Ireland, where such facilities consume 21% of the country’s electricity. Tony Lowes of Friends of the Irish Environment states, “Our main objections to data centres revolve around their potential negative impacts on our climate, their sustainability, and local infrastructure.” He adds, “When data centres rely on fossil fuel, they potentially strain the electricity grid and can undermine national renewable energy commitments.” The group continues to challenge proposals for a new €1.2bn ($1.3bn; £1bn) data center in County Clare on Ireland’s west coast. Mr. Lowes further notes that while Friends of the Irish Environment would prefer a complete halt to data center development, various mitigation strategies could be beneficial, such as prioritizing renewable energy for sites and implementing energy and cooling efficiency measures. Major players in the global data center industry are working to address public concerns. This summer, for example, Microsoft introduced its Data Center Community Pledge. Microsoft promises that by next year it will source 100% renewable energy globally. Furthermore, by 2030, it pledges to “achieve zero waste through a combination of waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting” and to become “water positive.” The latter signifies its aim for data centers to return more water to local supplies than they consume. Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services (AWS) already utilizes recycled water for cooling in 20 of its 125 data centers worldwide and also plans to be “water positive” by 2030. Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, which represents dozens of data center operators including Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, and Meta, asserts that data centers are pioneering clean energy use. He explains, “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.” Levi adds, “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.” Protests against data centers have also spread to South America, where campaigners report achieving successes. In Uruguay, for instance, Google modified the design of a new facility currently under construction. The US giant initially planned for water cooling but subsequently switched to an air-cooled system. This change followed protests in a country that has been experiencing droughts and a shortage of drinking water. María Selva Ortiz of Friends of the Earth Uruguay stated, “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.” She continued, “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, Google has, in the interim, paused plans for a data center due to similar concerns regarding water usage. Back in Virginia, Ms. Bolthouse argues that companies must do more to enhance sustainability. In the long term, she believes, it will be in the industry’s own best interest to improve the environmental impact of data centers. She explains, “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. The water scarcity issue is also going to impact them. So I am optimistic that we’re going to see a little bit of progress, but I think it’s going to take time.”