The City of Denver could put proposals for any new data centers on hold while officials “review and strengthen regulations” for current sites before approving any future centers.
An essential piece of infrastructure to store and process the data needed to power cloud software, artificial intelligence tools and other server-based technology, data centers have become a necessary part of commerce, communication and health care. However, data centers also consume a lot of resources, so some city leaders want to issue a moratorium.
According to the Pew Research Center, one AI-focused hyperscale data center consumes enough energy to power 100,000 households. In communities sharing a power source with data centers, electricity costs have increased by up to 267 percent over a five-year span, a Bloomberg News analysis shows. Data center cooling systems also require a large amount of water, consuming tens of billions of gallons nationwide each year…