In an effort to curb the environmental and neighborhood impacts of large data centers, San Jose on Friday released their first draft of uniform standards for the massive tech facilities.
Under the draft regulations, facilities drawing 20 megawatts or more would be barred from using drinking water in open cooling systems, required to run on 100% clean power, and limited to 25 hours a year for backup generator testing.
The proposed policies follow weeks of community outreach in which city residents expressed many of the same anxieties over data centers that have been growing nationwide. While the projects promise millions of dollars in revenue for cities that welcome them, they also bring massive energy and water demands alongside quality-of-life concerns like noise pollution…