MARYLAND – This series explores the impacts of data centers on water supply, energy use and air quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Data centers house the computer systems that enable internet activity and, increasingly, artificial intelligence. Northern Virginia, in the middle of the Bay watershed, is the global epicenter of these warehouse-like facilities. Their footprint is now spreading into Maryland and Pennsylvania too.
The data centers that increasingly fuel our AI-enabled interactions need to run 24 hours a day to keep the internet going. So, like grocery stores or hospitals, these facilities include backup power generators, often fueled by diesel or natural gas, and intended to run only during emergencies.
But in the Chesapeake Bay region, where exponential data center growth has put unprecedented strain on the power grid, such emergencies are no longer unthinkable…