Datacenters - General Information

North America Data Center Report H2 2023 - The quest for power moves development into new frontiers
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The big environmental costs of big data for the internet  June 22, 2024 PBS Newshour The rise of artificial intelligence is requiring faster and bigger computations for even simple tasks compared to, say, a Google search. It’s adding to the demand for more internet data centers, but these facilities come at a big environmental cost, especially for the communities that host them. 

As internet data centers multiply, efforts to control them are growing By Antonio Olivo Washington Post, April 30, 2024

PBS News Center Reporting on data center issues YouTube, from several years ago to present.

Google data center would be among Cedar Rapids’ largest water and energy users

City has surplus water capacity for proposed $576M project The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA by Erin Jordan Apr. 29, 2024 

Virginia is the data center capital of the world, what’s the controversy surrounding them?

Tyler Englander April 29, 2024 WRIC ABC 8News "Dominion says that, in order to prepare for the increased electricity need, the company is building new plants harnessing the power of offshore wind, solar and natural gas."

Warrenton town staff approves site plan for 220,000-square-foot Amazon data center project 

by Grace Schumacher, FauquierNow, Apr 19, 2024

“I think it's peculiar that [the town] would have approved the site development plan just three or four days ahead of when they were going to have a work session on related topics with the Town Council,” said Kevin Ramundo, president of the nonprofit group Citizens for Fauquier County, echoing Protect Fauquier’s concerns. “From our point of view, it was entirely predictable that the town would approve the site development plan -- Amazon has been getting a pass on what it should be required to provide.”

Massive Data Center Master Plan Proposed in West Valley [Maricopa County, Arizona] By BEX Staff March 22, 2024

A 5.6MSF data center master plan that will deliver 28 buildings on two campuses totaling 1,000 acres in the West Valley is under consideration by Maricopa County.

ET Edge Insights/Vertiv, by Tanmoy Mitra, March 2024
.. about Vertiv’s steadfast commitment to sustainability, energy efficiency, and pioneering solutions, underscoring their concerted efforts to mitigate environmental impact and advance eco-friendly practices within the sector .. importance of strategic location, such as having a water hub, in the growing data centre markets of Mumbai and Pune. Their insights shed light on the intricate interplay between technological innovation, environmental stewardship, and strategic foresight.

Northern Virginia is again the No. 1 data center market, but challenges are mounting. The Northern Virginia data center market ended the year with 51 million square feet of gross operating data center space. That’s the equivalent of about eight Pentagons and almost 4,000 megawatts of inventory, a metric used to measure data center capacity. That requires enough electricity to power about 800,000 homes. That is three times the capacity of the world’s No. 2 data center market, Singapore. WTOP News Jeff Clabaugh jclabaugh@wtop.com March 18, 2024

Just Say No to the Second Largest Data Center in the Country By John Lovegrove, President of Loudoun’s Future, a Political Action Committee dedicated to preserving our way of life in Loudoun County

February 28, 2024 Blue Ridge Leader & Loudon Today

The Belmont project’s proposed 4.8 million additional sq.ft. of data center bring with it a tremendous amount of problems that must be considered. For starters, the nearly-five million sq. ft. would make Belmont the second largest data center in the country. Regardless of any buffers or setbacks, a project this size would negatively impact many residents. There’s no denying its size and the impossible task of blending it into our community – by comparison, the largest office building in the world, the Pentagon, at six million square feet, is not much bigger than the Belmont deal. 

The craziest places to find data centers: When is a mountain not a mountain?  When it's a giant data center in disguise! Nnnnno, it's not exactly funny - but it does have the distinction of being true. 4 September 2023 T_HQ technology and business. Molly Loe TechHQ

Understanding Data Center Energy Consumption  Power, Data Centers / By Josh Mahan,  C&C Technology Group June 8, 2023

Will data centers become obsolete?   Many organizations want to simplify or scale down their data centers -- but they won't disappear. Admins can examine as-a-service options and cloud to offload some applications. Alan R. Earls 20 Mar 2023 Tech Target

Cities and regions with the highest concentration of data centers
Real Assets Adviser - February 1, 2023: Vol. 10, Number 2 by Dgtl Infra

Big Tech’s New Headache: Data Centre Activism Flourishes Across the World by Sebastián Lehuedé November 2nd, 2022 Media@LSE blog, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Big Tech’s New Headache: Data Centre Activism Flourishes Across the World by Sebastián Lehuedé November 2nd, 2022 London School of Economics and Political Science 

Groups opposing the construction of polluting and water-intensive data centres are emerging in different regions. These local activists are laying bare Big Tech’s profoundly problematic community and environmental record ...

Data Center Skills Gap Creates Employment Shortage  Salary Survey highlights the intense need for closing the skills gap still exists. Data Center Knowledge Soni Brown | Oct 06, 2022

Millstone operation is critical factor for zero-carbon goals  Researched and written by World Nuclear News, 12 October 2021

Data Centers: It’s All About Location: Basic Data Center Location Requirements
Rich Banta Lifeline Data Centers January 7, 2020   ... these are baseline requirements – a starting point. These guidelines should be used as a bare minimum checklist to be satisfied before entering into any serious discussions with any potential data center or cloud service provider.

Infiniti Guide: How long do Data Centres Last?    Infiniti Data Centre Services & Solutions UK