The title is the first real point. Data centers are coming. There is no interest group, citizens group, or political party that is going to change that. Artificial intelligence requires data centers, and requires that the computers which it contains be in close physical proximity to one another.
Given that they are coming, they are going to be located somewhere. That requires space, water for cooling, and an enormous current excess in electrical generating capacity. Period.
Citizens are not without ANY power in data centers - but not very much.
Moreover, the amount of information, intentional and/or malicious disinformation, is an industry all to itself. Oddly enough, it is partially driven by AI, which measures in damn near real time the effects of the information and massages it to make it more effective. More effective meaning it creates opinions which match what the maker of the messages wants.
I resent AI. I resent that a computer can do calculations quicker than I can (although that's been the case since ENIAC, i.e., all of my life). I resent that a computer can simulate thinking, can con people into thinking what they are reading comes from a real human mind. and can make decisions which will just be accepted because the computer made them. A poll (that I can't now find) done a year or so ago has a majority of those counted trusting AI to decide whether to take a country to war.
But for all of my extreme negativity, data centers are still going to happen. The reasons: (1) Power and (2) Money.
There IS an interest - primarily among nations - which affects how we hear about data centers and AI. The United States would LOVE to beat China to AI. Being partially capitalist (with at least a heady flavoring of oligarcholistic), much of the noise generated ON BOTH SIDES is to be pro-America (at being first). China would LOVE to beat the United States, and being totalitarian socialist (with some oligarchs of their own), much of the noise being generated ON BOTH SIDES has Chinese fingerprints. Now, those are just the two main players, but there are other national players in the mix, Japan, two Koreas, India, Indonesia, the Middle East, and for that matter a majority of the 200 nations on earth.
Ohio/West Virginia/Pennsylvania is a good place to put data centers (that’s assume that you are looking for good places.) The area has some excess electrical generating capacity, although not nearly as much as data centers will require. Other regions of North America are not so close.
Within some small confines, the public and local (meaning not national) government does have something to say. For instance, in a portion of Ohio, Brooke and Hancock Counties of West Virginia, where their used to be steel plants, is room to put in data centers.
So, those governments need to consider what that might bring.
One industry will be promoted all to hell - construction. However, the construction industry is one which moves from place to place. Sure, there will be construction jobs building the data centers. Then, the jobs move on. The permanent jobs remaining will be clerical and general maintenance for which citizens already in the area are qualified, and highly technical jobs for which people are probably training for, but not necessarily here. When the data centers are done and operating, you’ll see big ass buildings without windows and parking lots with a smattering of cars.
Any kind of work involves heat. My computer is warm and so am I when I’m working, but not enough so to create a microclimate. Data centers will use so much electricity and generate so much heat that they will create some sort of microclimate. Given that the best coolant generally available is water, and the last time I looked, water flowed downhill, data centers will be located in low places - valleys. [See Note One] Then, after you collect the heat generated by the data centers, you have to transfer it someplace, even by simply dumping the water back into the river. One of the “contenders” for data centers is Randolph and Barbour Counties in West Virginia. That’s on the Ohio River watershed, but high up. A data center put there would necessitate getting rid of heated water in a much smaller river than, say, the Ohio. I bet the fish wouldn’t be pleased. Not to say that the Ohio River fish will welcome the warmer water.
The need for more electrical generation will guarantee that there will be more power plants. Another car in the money train is the electric companies. Electric companies are more-or-less regulated. They have to be. To generate electricity and distribute it takes an enormous amount of capital, so much so that it would be woefully expensive to the public to have competing distribution systems. So, some sort of Public Service or Public Utilities Commission exist in every state. Because they try to keep costs down to the minimum, the PSC/PUC’s bear some responsibility for our antiquated distribution system. Right now, the power by which you are reading this is transmitted through a system part of which has parts that are no longer manufactured. The increase in generating capacity is going to bring a much needed - and very expensive - improvement to the distribution systems. Ok, who pays? That’s a touchy subject. Generally, the top rates are paid by the least users of electricity. That makes economic sense, even if it doesn’t sound fair. It costs more capital investment to bring the miniscule amount of electricity you use in your home than it does to bring it to a factory, data center or other big user.
There are allegations of bribery being made in the current off-year political campaign. Supporters of former Sen. Sherrod Brown’s campaign to return to the Senate from Ohio have made a charge against an Energy Company called First Energy that they paid a bribe. (I have zero idea is that is supported by any truth or not. You CAN libel a corporation, and I’m sure that that is on First Energy’s mind, but a lawsuit would take years and the election is in two months.)
Well, data centers are coming. It’s utopia, dystopian, or probably both.
Note One: The specific heat of a substance is the amount of heat it take to heat one gram by one degree centigrade. For water, that’s a little over 4 joules. For iron, copper, and other metals, it’s a little over 1 joule. That means that water can absorb heat more efficiently than those metals.
