What are your thoughts on "Data Centers"

[Melensdad]

I'm in a rural area, there are several proposed "data centers" in the works (not near me) but in the rural parts of my county.

People seem to be all up in arms to STOP THE DATA CENTERS and there are protests at the zoning meetings.

Rather than 'stopping' data centers why not work to properly manage them so they produce their own energy, perhaps even surplus that goes back out to the grid? To use closed cooling loops so they are not draining the water table? Is it crazy to simply regulate them so they are a benefit rather than detriment. The proposals I see put them on large pieces of land, with buffer zones and large set backs. Providing their own power and limiting water access/use. I don't see the big deal.

Data centers are needed for AI, which is being utilized by your kids schools, by trucking companies, by hospitals, by businesses and colleges & universities. Seems like every large corporation, industry, school, medical group, etc needs them now.

What am I missing?

 

[TexasGem]

They WILL be built! And if people would focus on proper management of them they would be a lot less obtrusive. And if they would learn the purpose of data centers they wouldn't be so afraid of them!!

 

[MountainTrapper]

What are they for? I don't see any use for them and I sure don't want to see any built in my area. It they're going to be built anyway, build them in the cities! I'm tired of seeing things built in rural areas that only benefit the city dwellers. Let them live with these eyesore's. I'm not afraid of them, I just don't want to see any more development.

 

[Melensdad]

What are they for? I don't see any use for them and I sure don't want to see any built in my area. It they're going to be built anyway, build them in the cities! I'm tired of seeing things built in rural areas that only benefit the city dwellers. Let them live with these eyesore's. I'm not afraid of them, I just don't want to see any more development.

Data centers are essential because they store, manage, and distribute vast amounts of data that organizations rely on for daily operations, including applications, cloud services, and communication. Most computer programing and usage is done 'in the cloud' for collaboration purposes. They are located in cities, in rural areas, in industrial areas, but our heavy reliance on computers requires more. And more. And more.

My daughter works for Aldi as a corporate lawyer, she does their Intellectual Property law for the US operation, but works with the German headquarters and collaborates with the International legal team. She also collaborates with other US lawyers who do contract, labor law and other specialties here in the USA but they all work remotely. Not practical to put it on a PC hard drive, it is 'stored' in a data center.

They support critical infrastructure for various sectors, enabling everything from online shopping to healthcare services. Every on-line shopping order, be it from Auto-Zone or Tractor Supply or Amazon relies on data centers.

And healthcare is huge. My medical records at one hospital/medical network were accessed recently when I ended up in the emergency room of a different hospital network. So the emergency room doctor and the surgeon would both see my history, my medications, my test results, so they didn't have to duplicate the testing before my recent minor heart procedure. All of that requires data centers. And, in the case of MEDICAL, it is now required that the data be stored in the cloud so it can be accessed by any other doctor who needs to see it.

 

[TexasGem]

That's the thing with AI, people don't realize how MUCH it's used, and how it is a huge part of their lives. It's ok not to understand stuff, but learning about things like this is very important. You want high speed Internet, you want to send an email, order online, get test results to your doctor for a fast reply, etc.! Hello data center!

 

[Melensdad]

That's the thing with AI, people don't realize how MUCH it's used, and how it is a huge part of their lives. It's ok not to understand stuff, but learning about things like this is very important. You want high speed Internet, you want to send an email, order online, get test results to your doctor for a fast reply, etc.! Hello data center!

A lot of it is NOT even AI. But yes, AI is a huge factor in the growing need for data centers.

The examples I gave above about my daughter's job and my medical stuff are not AI but they are real examples of how and why data centers are needed.

But if you want to look to obvious examples of AI, just look at the "Spencer Pratt" video thread about his campaign to become LA Mayor, that is all AI. Cat videos on TicToc or Instagram, those are AI too.

And yes, there are useful things for AI too, like medical diagnosis of X-rays and tumors as well as diagnostic uses. Just to name a few obvious examples.

 

[Melensdad]

Just ran across an interesting news article.

Socialist troublemaker and funder of far-left Democrats is in on the opposition to data centers. That almost cements my support of them if he is against them. I wonder if he is against them in Red States only?

Below is the link the full article:

Soros Fueling Opposition To Texas Data Center Expansion: Report<!-- --> | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Soros Fueling Opposition To Texas Data Center Expansion: Report​

​

A new investigation has connected Wall Street billionaire and Democrat megadonor George Soros to a national progressive network of activist groups opposing data center expansion in Texas.​

​

​

​

The Dallas Express reported that Open Society Foundations, founded and funded by Soros, has provided more than $7.6 million to the national Indivisible Project since 2017, including a two-year $3 million grant in 2023. Indivisible Centex, the local Bell County chapter of the national Indivisible network, has been active in opposing data center projects in Temple, Texas.​

​

Indivisible Centex reportedly held a “week of action” in late April against data center projects in Temple. Activities included a “Protest & Petition” event at Temple City Hall on April 24, efforts to recall city council members who supported the projects, and a virtual Zoom event on April 27 titled “Thirsty for Power: When Data Centers Drain Our Water.”​

​

The protests come amid significant data center expansion in the area.​

​

Rowan broke ground earlier this year on Project Temple, a 300-megawatt hyperscale campus on roughly 700 acres with a minimum investment of $700 million, and is developing additional phases in the area. Separately, Meta has been building its own large data center campus in Temple since 2022. The Temple City Council's April vote to annex and rezone about 700 acres along Bob White Road for the Rowan project drew opposition from residents concerned about water use, electricity demand, and infrastructure strain, concerns that prompted a separate group, Stop the Temple Data Center, to launch a recall effort against the mayor and two council members.​

​

Soros and friends, being agents of chaos and whatnot, are fueling the early stages of a “Luddite revolution” against data center expansion. Since mid-2025, the site has warned that exploding residential electricity bills, limited local job gains, and public unease over AI’s societal impacts would spark organized backlash, predicting protests and even infrastructure attacks within a year. Reports document a sharp escalation in resistance, with billions in projects delayed or blocked nationwide amid concerns over power demand, water use, and grid strain. . . .​

 

[Supervisor42]

I too am pro-datacenters.
Most of them are built in the middle of nowhere, on land that will never be used.
Coupled with a little AI stirred in, they are extremely helpful.
For an example: today on YouTube, you can type in one obscure line from any song that nobody listens to anymore,
And presto! Up pops a video of that song.
Every lyric line, from every song in history, is now in it's big brain.
Oh, and today there is now a video about ANY obscure topic you can even think of.
... And don't even get me started on how extremely helpful Google search with AI has become!

 

[m1west]

I'm in a rural area, there are several proposed "data centers" in the works (not near me) but in the rural parts of my county.

People seem to be all up in arms to STOP THE DATA CENTERS and there are protests at the zoning meetings.

Rather than 'stopping' data centers why not work to properly manage them so they produce their own energy, perhaps even surplus that goes back out to the grid? To use closed cooling loops so they are not draining the water table? Is it crazy to simply regulate them so they are a benefit rather than detriment. The proposals I see put them on large pieces of land, with buffer zones and large set backs. Providing their own power and limiting water access/use. I don't see the big deal.

Data centers are needed for AI, which is being utilized by your kids schools, by trucking companies, by hospitals, by businesses and colleges & universities. Seems like every large corporation, industry, school, medical group, etc needs them now.

What am I missing?

Google wells going dry around data centers.

 

[Neb]

Not "any".

I remember a Saturday morning show called ""Antamontapea". Google has no memory of that show. At least I couldn't get Google to find it.

Ben

 

[Don Coyote]

I don't own a cell phone and never will.

..... aside from that,..... build whatever you want, doesn't matter to me.

 

[FrancSevin]

Just ran across an interesting news article.

Socialist troublemaker and funder of far-left Democrats is in on the opposition to data centers. That almost cements my support of them if he is against them. I wonder if he is against them in Red States only?

Below is the link the full article:

Soros Fueling Opposition To Texas Data Center Expansion: Report<!-- --> | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Soros Fueling Opposition To Texas Data Center Expansion: Report​

​

A new investigation has connected Wall Street billionaire and Democrat megadonor George Soros to a national progressive network of activist groups opposing data center expansion in Texas.​

​

​

​

The Dallas Express reported that Open Society Foundations, founded and funded by Soros, has provided more than $7.6 million to the national Indivisible Project since 2017, including a two-year $3 million grant in 2023. Indivisible Centex, the local Bell County chapter of the national Indivisible network, has been active in opposing data center projects in Temple, Texas.​

​

Indivisible Centex reportedly held a “week of action” in late April against data center projects in Temple. Activities included a “Protest & Petition” event at Temple City Hall on April 24, efforts to recall city council members who supported the projects, and a virtual Zoom event on April 27 titled “Thirsty for Power: When Data Centers Drain Our Water.”​

​

The protests come amid significant data center expansion in the area.​

​

Rowan broke ground earlier this year on Project Temple, a 300-megawatt hyperscale campus on roughly 700 acres with a minimum investment of $700 million, and is developing additional phases in the area. Separately, Meta has been building its own large data center campus in Temple since 2022. The Temple City Council's April vote to annex and rezone about 700 acres along Bob White Road for the Rowan project drew opposition from residents concerned about water use, electricity demand, and infrastructure strain, concerns that prompted a separate group, Stop the Temple Data Center, to launch a recall effort against the mayor and two council members.​

​

Soros and friends, being agents of chaos and whatnot, are fueling the early stages of a “Luddite revolution” against data center expansion. Since mid-2025, the site has warned that exploding residential electricity bills, limited local job gains, and public unease over AI’s societal impacts would spark organized backlash, predicting protests and even infrastructure attacks within a year. Reports document a sharp escalation in resistance, with billions in projects delayed or blocked nationwide amid concerns over power demand, water use, and grid strain. . . .​

Data Centers will expand our information management technology.
If Soros is against them, I am for them.
I was any way.

Imagine if some 120 years ago, WE SHUT DOWN THE AUTOMOBILE BECAUSE HORSES WERE BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT!!!

 

[300 H and H]

When SpaceX deploys the first data center of many in orbit, the ground-based ones will be too expensive to operate. In space the electricity and the cooling are free. I don't think t will be too long before we see that happening either. The pieces to do so are all in place.

 

[tommu56]

They will be a massive power consumer without any tangible product, we can't even charge all our electric cars now so were is the juice coming from.

Now to the water consumption that's everyone is saying its massive that would only be if they didn't use closed loop cooling and heating
and the with the cooling they could use the condensate for the needs of the building.

The other driving the the thing is people using the AI for needless stuff, and the use to replace workers with AI, and like GM using its tracking of your vehicles the data has to be stored somewhere.

It's no worse than any other medium heavy industrial factory except no truck traffic in and out a plus that.

My thought is they should generate their own power (read capstone power solutions) running of natural gas, built in a zoning for heavy industry away from residential areas.

All this nay people are loosing out $$$$ they are coming and they should embrace with the above considerations to minimize impact on the local people.

 

[FrancSevin]

They will be a massive power consumer without any tangible product, we can't even charge all our electric cars now so were is the juice coming from.

Now to the water consumption that's everyone is saying its massive that would only be if they didn't use closed loop cooling and heating
and the with the cooling they could use the condensate for the needs of the building.

The other driving the the thing is people using the AI for needless stuff, and the use to replace workers with AI, and like GM using its tracking of your vehicles the data has to be stored somewhere.

It's no worse than any other medium heavy industrial factory except no truck traffic in and out a plus that.

My thought is they should generate their own power (read capstone power solutions) running of natural gas, built in a zoning for heavy industry away from residential areas.

All this nay people are loosing out $$$$ they are coming and they should embrace with the above considerations to minimize impact on the local people.

It is my understanding that most of these "Data Centers" will be required to generate their own power.
Their are several companies with offerings.

Power for Data Centers | Jenbacher North America

Reliable fast-start solutions for data centers powered by Jenbacher engines. Up to 3.3 MW electrical load in less than 45 seconds.

www.jenbacher.us

 

[Supervisor42]

Not "any".

I remember a Saturday morning show called ""Antamontapea". Google has no memory of that show. At least I couldn't get Google to find it.

Ben

Are you sure you don't mean "onomatopoeia"?
I had consult 'actual intelligence' (DW) and not AI, to get an answer ...
"noun

1. the formation of a word, as cuckoo, meow, honk, or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent.
2. a word so formed.
3. the use of imitative and naturally suggestive words for rhetorical, dramatic, or poetic effect."

There could have been a TV show called that, but I can't find it.
... But there is a tabletop game called that though:
https://www.tiktok.com/@tiktokboardgames/video/7345645387291692331

 

[Melensdad]

Google wells going dry around data centers.

This is a problem with the open loop cooling.

That is why I posted "closed loop".

 

[Melensdad]

When SpaceX deploys the first data center of many in orbit, the ground-based ones will be too expensive to operate. In space the electricity and the cooling are free. I don't think t will be too long before we see that happening either. The pieces to do so are all in place.

I agree. Much of this will be space based.

 

[Melensdad]

They will be a massive power consumer without any tangible product, we can't even charge all our electric cars now so were is the juice coming from.

Now to the water consumption that's everyone is saying its massive that would only be if they didn't use closed loop cooling and heating
and the with the cooling they could use the condensate for the needs of the building.

The other driving the the thing is people using the AI for needless stuff, and the use to replace workers with AI, and like GM using its tracking of your vehicles the data has to be stored somewhere.

It's no worse than any other medium heavy industrial factory except no truck traffic in and out a plus that.

My thought is they should generate their own power (read capstone power solutions) running of natural gas, built in a zoning for heavy industry away from residential areas.

All this nay people are loosing out $$$$ they are coming and they should embrace with the above considerations to minimize impact on the local people.

Many now produce their own power with on-site power plants. They sell excess power to the grid. In some places the on-site power generation is mandatory.

Closed loop cooling seems to dramatically reduce water use issues.

AI is used for 'cat' videos and for medical procedures. For silly memes and for routing delivery trucks most efficiently. It always will be used for silly and productive uses.

 

[redsqwrl]

Centralized computing is all a *data center* is.

Microsoft
Ebay
Amazon
Et all sell space to consumers. On star epic, cia, apple.

In the recent past, each business entity ran servers on site and used communication paths to move actual documents between users. The business community employed actual IT professionals to build configure and operate large computer servers with partitioned hard drives.
The cloud was an attractive resource to minimize workforce and valuable brick and mortar space that the IT dept consumed.
By buying space on a rented cloud storage system you are giving away the control and security of your data.
Example.
Our learning management system is Black Board. All, day to day learning curriculum is loaded into the cloud (in the name of Bb) the minimun front end of the lms is housed onsite in our servers. Two years ago while northern california was burning our amazon file services data center was shut down by pge as the psc allows. The onsite power was prohibited from running due to the dry conditions. The service looked like it was up. The front end worked. Landing pages were there. NOTHING ELSE.
Our college and many more were held hostage until some routing could happen and get our data to a cloud (rented server) that was online.
If you are for cloud based storage . I feel you are an uniformed idiot. Back up your data you wont have a problem is the mantra/chant.

No .
The cloud is a profit center an lots of data is getting lost and delayed. Folks are embarassed and companies dont want the liability exposure.


AI is a fad
Cloud based storage will settle on porn, ai content, and low level business clutter.
Here is some for the data center ai lovers.....



Real important data will return to private servers. Managed by AI

 

[m1west]

I agree. Much of this will be space based.

Yea I know, but google it anyway, you might be surprised.

 

[300 H and H]

It's no worse than any other medium heavy industrial factory except no truck traffic in and out a plus that.

Except there are only a hand full of jobs at that Mega data center. A similar building might house a business with several thousand employees. That is one hell of a big difference.

The locals will not benefit from it much at all. And they have to live with it in their community.

 

[jazzy]

im not real sharp on this stuff but from what ive heard they are sucking a heck if alot of electricty and water with costs quiety shoved on communities and trying toi take over private owned lands to expand in a way convenient to them but not others. kinda uppity

 

[waybomb]

If all they do is take up space, they create their own electricity, and close loop the water, i have no objection.

 

[Melensdad]

I saw an article that they use less water than a typical golf course or almond tree farm. But generate significantly more income per gallon of water used.

There is one proposed for the east side of town, miles away from me. There is also a John Deere distribution warehouse being built over there. The JD warehouse bought a bunch of farmland and is building a massive building, there will be semi-trucks and out of there all day long, it will use a lot of energy and the utility company had to put in new service poles and lines.

The data center will also be on a bunch of farmland, it will also be a massive building, but it will supply its own power and has a closed loop cooling system, and while it will have a parking lot the business model does NOT include semi-trucks going in and out of the property all day long and it will include a lot of green space around the building.

So both are big giant buildings that occupy farmland.

Both farms wanted to sell the land, so nobody "took over' the land.

One has lots of grass and trees. One has a lot of semi-trucks. Which seems worse?

 

[tommu56]

Except there are only a hand full of jobs at that Mega data center. A similar building might house a business with several thousand employees. That is one hell of a big difference.

The locals will not benefit from it much at all. And they have to live with it in their community.

but also after construction your not getting 100+ trucks a day to the place like a manufacturing plant like the one I worked at

 

[redsqwrl]

Ill submit a small old one:

 

[redsqwrl]

Google maps photos. This looks like phase I.

It was an old gatorade fulfillment center turned giant file server. I believe its a google one.

Find it yourself and zoom in. Count the cooling towers.
Cooling towers have giant fans and make noise like propeller equipped planes that dont go away.
Use google measurement and calculate the evaporative quantities on the storage ponds. Closed loop is a dream when the cooling ponds are open to atmosphere....

They make their own power.
Yep they do. zoom in. 12 or 16 cyl cat diesels all in weather enclosures count em up.
While your counting take notice of the overhead powerlines from the coal
/natural gas fired power plant out of town on the rail System.
There are loading dicks bulk fuel tanks and employees.

Im not for or against them. I hate cloud storage being forced on the consumer and then require payment to access your data.

I just like to use facts when discussing. Inform yourself. Hell use a google search, maybe at 10 am to 2 pm when utilities are charging 140% increase on power...

 

[Melensdad]

Im not for or against them. I hate cloud storage being forced on the consumer and then require payment to access your data.

Generally you don't have to use cloud storage. Get a smart phone with the maximum available storage space. Get a laptop or PC with the maximum hard drive. Use your own external hard drives for other storage.

Don't get devices like "Ring" door bells or "Nest" thermostats. Don't make your home a 'smart home.'

The problem is many people buy "internet" appliances like tablets and low end laptops that ONLY work with cloud storage.

It's pretty easy to avoid 'renting' cloud space.

 

[waybomb]

Quote -". Closed loop is a dream when the cooling ponds are open to atmosphere."

Every lake, river, ocean, pond, whatever, is open to the atmosphere. That's how we get rain.
You have closed loop in your car. Closed loop is not a dream. It's very common in manufacturing. Water is expensive. Evaporative cooling is not efficient. Every day, as the water evaporated, minerals form on the surface, causing heat transfer to become more inefficient by the day