BOTETOURT CO., Va. – As Google prepares to build a data center in Botetourt County, a local expert who grew up in the area is working to ease community concerns about the facility’s impact.
Eric Larson, who grew up in Daleville around the Greenfield, now works as a lead HVAC technician for data centers in Northern Virginia. After starting with standard HVAC work in hospitals and colleges, he’s spent the last four years specializing in data center cooling systems.
“The biggest myth I hear is that all data centers are the same,” Larson said. “They’re really not scary… they’re not that bad for the environment. They’re not going to affect your day-to-day life.”
Inside the Facilities
Based on his experience, Larson described the typical layout of these facilities. “Walking through the front door, you’re going to have a lobby, and then a series of hallways, bathrooms, office spaces,” he explained. “That’s all encompassing the data hall, where the actual servers are.” The facilities feature at least two layers of concrete walls between the outside and the restricted server areas. The data halls themselves are highly restricted, with only select personnel having security clearance to access these areas where the servers are housed…