Julie Bolthouse
Julie Bolthouse opposes new data center planning applications in Northern Virginia
Environmental activist Julie Bolthouse points out that Northern Virginia has the largest concentration of data centers in the world. It's not something she's passionate about.
“We are the Wall Street of the data center industry,” says Ms. Bolthouse, director of the local Virginia charity and campaign group Piedmont Environmental Council.
Data centers are vast warehouses housing stacks of computers that store and process data used by websites, businesses and governments.
Northern Virginia, the northern region of the state of Virginia, has been a key location for data centers since the 1990s. This is due to its close proximity to Washington DC, but with lower electricity prices and historically cheap land.
Centered on the city of Ashburn, located 56 km west of the US capital, the state has more than 477 data centers. This is by far the largest number in the United States, with Texas coming in second with 290 and California third with 283.
In fact, some studies indicate that 70% of the world's Internet traffic passes through Ashburn and the surrounding area, nicknamed “Data Center Alley.”
Hugh Kenny
The area around the American city of Ashburn is known as Data Center Alley.
Largely thanks to the continued rise of artificial intelligence (AI), which requires more computing power, demand for data centers is exploding. As a result, global data center capacity is expected to double over the next five years, according to a recent study from business analysis firm Moody's.
Ms. Bolthouse and other Northern Virginia environmentalists oppose the continued expansion of the data center industry in their region, saying it is already having a major negative impact on their quality of life.
She points to the construction of new electrical cables on conservation lands, parks and neighborhoods, increased demand for water and backup diesel generators at facilities that affect air quality.
Ms. Bolthouse also cites the fact that households in Virginia and neighboring Maryland should help finance power grid upgrades needed for data centers.
She and her fellow activists are fighting back. “We're working directly on the ground, opposing every data center application and working on local zoning, and trying to educate our local planning commission and supervisors about the problems we're seeing. But we also work at the state level.
Similar campaigns against data centers are popping up around the world, including in the Republic of Ireland, where these facilities consume 21% of the country's electricity.
“Our main objections to data centers revolve around their potential negative impacts on our climate, sustainability and local infrastructure,” says Tony Lowes of Friends of the Irish Environment. “When data centers rely on fossil fuels, they risk straining the power grid and undermining national renewable energy commitments.”
The group continues to contest plans for a new €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion; £1 billion) data center in County Clare, on Ireland's west coast .
Mr Lowes adds that although Ireland's Friends of the Environment would prefer to see data center development halted altogether, various mitigation measures could help, including sites prioritizing renewable energy and implementing energy saving measures. energy and cooling efficiency.
Hugh Kenny
Ashburn environmental activists unhappy with number of power pylons
Big players in the global data center industry are trying to allay people's concerns. This summer, for example, Microsoft launched its Data Center Community Pledge.
Microsoft promises that by next year it will purchase 100% renewable energy globally. And that by 2030, it will “achieve zero waste through a combination of waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting”, and become “water positive”. The latter means that it aims for its data centers to return more water to the local network than they consume.
Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services (AWS) already uses recycled water for cooling in 20 of its 125 data centers worldwide, and also claims it will be “water positive” by 2030.
Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, which represents dozens of data center operators including Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and Meta, says data centers are leading the way in energy use own.
“For example, wind and solar capacity contracted to data center providers and customers accounted for two-thirds of the total U.S. corporate renewable energy market last year, and four of the top five buyers of renewable energy in the U.S. United States are companies that operate data centers. » he said.
“The data center industry also enables greater energy savings and efficiencies for homes, businesses, utilities and other end users – everything from smart thermostats to home improvement technologies. network, requires the digital infrastructure provided by data centers.
Protests against data centers have also spread to South America, where activists say they have had successes.
In Uruguay, for example, Google changed the design of a new facility currently under construction. It was initially supposed to be water-cooled, but the American giant opted for an air-cooled system.
This follows protests in a country experiencing droughts and a shortage of drinking water.
“Google's water consumption in the initial proposal would have been equivalent to the daily drinking water consumption of 55,000 people in our country,” says María Selva Ortiz of Friends of the Earth Uruguay.
“This threat to the right to water in the context of a water crisis has sparked strong criticism, which led Google to modify the technology proposed to cool its equipment. The project was therefore modified. The coolers will cool with air instead of water.”
In Chile, Google halted its data center project due to similar problems with water consumption.
Back in Virginia, Bolthouse says businesses need to do more to promote sustainability. In the long term, she says, it will be in the industry's interest to improve the environmental impact of data centers.
“If we continue as usual, electricity prices are going to skyrocket for everyone, including the data center sector – and it's their biggest bill, so it's going to affect them,” she said. “The water shortage problem will also affect them.
“So I’m optimistic that we’re going to see some progress, but I think it’s going to take time.”
Read more articles on global business and technology
Source link
