I manage what used to be our largest one, we use no water other than toilets and humidifiers. We are not spewing smoke into the air. There's no toxic waste being put into our streams. Virginia DEQ constantly audits our activities. We bought the land for our substation and paid for the power company equipment 100x over probably 1,000's of times. One of the 20+ data halls I have in my building would have a $1m+ per month electric bill, we pay our fair share. I am sick of all the rumors and mis/disinformation going around about data centers. There are 40+ people in my department, dozens of other direct employees plus subbed out cleaning, security, groundskeeping and other various maintenance and repair employees. Then there's our customers who mostly have someone onsite 24/7.

Everyone using a cellphone, a bank, social media, or the internet is using a data center. It's either us or China who runs them and controls AI, you pick.

They create jobs, very good paying ones, and contribute $1,000,000,000+ to county taxes base resulting in 1/2 the property taxes we would pay without them.

I appreciate the post Jesse. I know nothing about them other than they are used for data storage such as the cloud, etc. Here in Texas, they are popping up all over probably because of available land, but people are going crazy saying just how much water they use to cool the computers. I figured if they use water, it is re-used. Any other facts you can share is appreciated to dispel myths people in my area are saying and my area has become overwhelmed with far left liberals.

And what are the complaints?

What are your noise levels like? Light emissions?

I’m not sure that every one of them is responsible on water use, or that they are actually paying for the cost of the power they consume.

When the math catches up, and the current AI model fails, will there be clean up issues? If so, is there some kind of bond to cover that?

quote:

Originally posted by 400m:
And what are the complaints?

In my area it is they are using up all the water and electricity. Several large data centers are going up in my area. I know nothing about them so can’t counter argue.

Good keep'm in Loudoun County. Put them in downtown Detroit. We don't want them in rural Tucker County, WV.

In TX, evaporative coolers will work well.

Radiators probably won’t. Do they will go through water.

Besides resources who is behind them. What data are they after and who are they selling it to and for what purposes. I think we should be very skeptical. If there is nothing to hide. Why are they building them all over like there is no tomorrow.?

quote:

If there is nothing to hide. Why are they building them all over like there is no tomorrow.?

Does not compute.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
What are your noise levels like? Light emissions?

I’m not sure that every one of them is responsible on water use, or that they are actually paying for the cost of the power they consume.

When the math catches up, and the current AI model fails, will there be clean up issues? If so, is there some kind of bond to cover that?

My buildings noise levels are quieter than my neighborhood, when the generators run monthly for the exercising the generators which sounds like a UPS truck making deliveries. There's a number of noise levels depending on the cooling employed, outdoor chillers make more noise, but is not typically audible off grounds or within 100' of the property lines. There's only one using their own power plant (happens to be closest one to my house). It was not properly vetted before construction and makes an awful whining sound like a Turbo diesel that does enter neighborhoods. I hope the county makes them add some kind of noise mitigation not only for my neighbors but because it's a giant black eye on the industry and should never have been allowed to be installed near houses. Since temporary they didn't do enough in permitting, major fail on county and owners.

Water usage was a response to other people bitching about the electricity usage and pollution of power generation, so they used water which is green. Most are going away from evaporative cooling because of the reaction to the reaction of using electricity or if they do it they are going with reclaimed water for cooling towers to cool the high pressure loop of mechanical cooling. This gives some energy usage benefit from pure electrically driven mechanical cooling then eating the hit from using dirty water for their systems which increases maintenance and water treatment costs and is a happy medium until the next complaints. It's a game of whack a mole to fight for efficiency and keeping the Patchouli and Birkenstock crowd at bay.

No, if the AI goes rogue, no bonds are available, that's what Sarah Connor is for.

Sorry for typos or autocorrect mistakes if any typing from Tuk Tuk on unpaved road (using a data still though).

Wisconsin has some their communities in a knot. You read about Data Centers using Millions of gallons, it’s not for consumption and returned to the supply.

Compare that to a bottling (beer, sugar soda, or your pick) and they consume but no return to the source.


The need from what I understand today, US companies do not want the data shared all across the world. China is building at a higher rate. Willing to short sell services in exchange for the data.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
We don't want them in rural Tucker County, WV.

Just curious, but why not? Loudoun County is the richest county in the US and they have over 200 data centers there. If they were so bad the residents there are wealthy enough to have stopped them in the first place.

JP

I'm sure there are many places where they are acceptable; I'd rather have meadowlarks.

Literally every single thing that anyone does in modern society is backed by a data center somewhere doing it. Maybe there are small communities that have smaller footprint like the amish. But nobody in general society would survive very long without a data center somewhere controlling some critical aspect of their life or being the critical component in design of products or processes. This is a very stupid battle.

The Krell saw no need for a bond.

I would posit the people and money and advertising behind the anti movement are Chinese commie Party affiliated and they prefer we NOT gain the advantage in the AI race Vs them.

That being said. I don’t want one in MY neighborhood but we do need them.

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
I would posit the people and money and advertising behind the anti movement are Chinese commie Party affiliated and they prefer we NOT gain the advantage in the AI race Vs them.

That being said. I don’t want one in MY neighborhood but we do need them.

You are correct sir, do a reverse image search of the posts on Facebook (using AI to create), exact same picture, but modified for nearly every state. They say things like protect our mountains; protect our streams; preserve farmland; stop pollution; etc. All just barely altered for each state, all posted by similar named people or orgs. Or Google the .orgs that are pretending to be some kind of authority but are recently made up.

The AI race is the space race of the 21st century our enemies (see China) don't want us to win and they've enlisted a lot of useful idiots. The Democrats are there to assist, but I repeat myself.

There is a need to some extent.

But how much of data centers are used for unnecessary purposes. For example, the millions of idiot, innane photo's and videos that people take all the time that really have no value. Cat pictures excluded of course. How much is for AI processing vs AI learning (model development) vs just data retention (just because we can)? All the irrelevant data and information that is kept because it's easy and cheap (and forgotten) to keep rather than just purge.

How much is data that is just collected about each and every person, despite actual need or adherence to privacy concerns? And for how long after the data is actually obsolete?

How much waste vs actual value add are all these data centers providing?

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
I would posit the people and money and advertising behind the anti movement are Chinese commie Party affiliated and they prefer we NOT gain the advantage in the AI race Vs them.

That being said. I don’t want one in MY neighborhood but we do need them.

I bet you are right. Sounds like usual leftist agitation to me.