More and more people are expressing their discontent with hyperscale data centers. A recent Gallup poll showed 70% are against hosting a large data center in their community. Concerns include: utility costs, water usage, environmental and health effects, and the use of these centers for AI surveillance.
The data centers of the early 2000s functioned like an interactive library/storage facility and were about 0.2 MW in size. Today’s hyperscale data centers cover 500+ acres of land, use more than 100MW of energy, and require billions of gallons of water each year.
A proposed data center in Pike County (the PORTS Technology Campus) will cover 3,700 acres and will be the largest in the world at 8 GW: equivalent to the power used by all homes in Ohio…