Across the country, it seems that many towns, communities, and cities are starting to fight the idea of datacenters. In the past few weeks, I’ve noted multiple fights, from Tuscon, Arizona, to Virginia, at St Louis, in-between. The concerns are the massive power needs, the water needs, pollution, heat, and more. Datacenters are a need for staying competitive in the technological future, but the concept of NIMBY, not in my back yard, reigns in many areas. A balance we need to find, is where we can locate away from people, create sustainable data architecture, and yet still have access to the technological talent that is needed to keep our servers and internet services running. I do agree with the idea that finding these locations is important, but it should not be at a cost borne by local residents, which is a tricky proposition in itself.
Questions grow over water and energy costs of warehouse of computers in Sonoran desert – but will Project Blue be stopped?
Source: ‘The city that draws the line’: one Arizona community’s fight against a huge datacenter
