Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

When I wrote the headline on this blog, I knew at least one thing:  What I know about data centers could be written on the head of a pin.

Plus, these days, data centers have become political footballs to be thrown every which way.  Which means we cannot rely on the authority of such footballs.

Here in Oregon, for example, the two candidates for governor – Democrat Tina Kotek who is running for re-election, and Republican Christine Drazan who is trying to unseat Kotek after failing last time around – are playing the game.

Both now say they favor a moratorium in data centers in Oregon, though each has been on a different page in the past. 

A Drazan ad contended that Kotek has given data centers cushy tax breaks while increasing taxes on “regular” Oregonians.  An ad for Kotek takes Drazan on for her actions to support data centers.  Both ads have overstated things, but that’s what political ads do – they overstate.

The fact is that many of the tax breaks for data centers in Oregon have been approved by local governments under what’s the called “enterprise zone program.”  Not by Kotek or by Drazan, though both may have favored them in the past as ways to bring new jobs to the state.

So, wondering about the truth of data centers, not the political tug-of-war, I went to Google. 

As I did, an additional comment about why I decided to write a blog about this.  It is not to share “new” information or to come up with my own bottom-line view.  No, it was just to learn more and plant the information in my head by writing about it.

On Google, infused by AI, I learned a lot from a piece written by Cal Tech professor Adam Wierman.

Why Wierman?  No reason.  I just found what he wrote to be interesting.  He is a professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences and director of Information Science and Technology at Caltech. 

He says it is crucial fully to understand and manage the impact of data centers, especially in small communities.  Over the last several years, Wierman and a colleague from UC Riverside have focused on the public health costs associated with data center–generated air pollution and the water demands of hyperscale data centers.

In the interest of accuracy and context, I post here excerpts from what Wierman wrote, with, of course, due credit to him for his work.

Here is the intro to the article:

“ere iHeerWith the recent growth of AI, particularly with widespread adoption of large language models such as ChatGPT, there has been a dramatic increase in the need for data centers — facilities that house the computers and data storage systems that make the technology possible.

“And while much has been said about the large-scale and even global environmental impact of these computing centers in terms of energy and water usage, the local impact on small communities, where large data centers are increasingly being built, is emerging as a point of particular concern.”

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First, how do we define data centers?

Data centers are the physical infrastructure needed to run the computing that happens below the surface when you give ChatGPT or another LLM a task.  They can be what we call “hyperscale,” these massive campuses consisting of multiple buildings, each of which can be the size of multiple football fields.  They house a huge number of servers that demand power and the water to cool them on a scale that sometimes rivals entire cities.  At the same time, there are data centers that meet more local, so-called “edge computing” needs.  These are far less conspicuous and might take up multiple floors of a skyscraper or an abandoned warehouse.

How have data centers grown over the years?

There has been a ton of growth in data centers over the years.  The electricity needs were a big concern, and research focused intensely on questions like:  How do we manage this growth of data centers?  How do we make sure that the grid can handle them?  How do we make sure that the environmental impact is constrained?

The recent surge of AI has led to a massive growth rate.  In the early 2010s, data centers accounted for about 1 to 1.5 per cent of U.S. electricity usage.  There were fears that it was going to get up to 3 to 5 per cent.  We are again in an exponential phase of growth, and people are projecting data centers will hit 15 to 20 per cent of U.S. electricity usage in a few years.  The question is:  Can research constrain that?  Or can we at least limit the impact of that on the communities, plan for it, and grow sustainably?

Why is it important to focus heavily now on the communities where these data centers are being built?

In the 2010s, we were focusing on power, carbon, and kind of the global large-scale impact of data centers.  Now, the local impacts are becoming much more binding because this isn’t just a large load coming in.  This is a massive community-shifting load coming into areas and stressing infrastructure in ways that are hard to imagine.

What are some of the ways in which these local communities are impacted?

First, there’s the noise, especially when multiple data centers come in.  These data centers rely on back-up mobile generators, and they are super loud.  They also are about the dirtiest source in terms of pollution for the local community.

Back-up generators run a lot more frequently just because they have to be turned on and off for testing and maintenance.  Also, if there is any sort of power imbalance, they are put to use.  And they run on diesel or, these days, gas.  So, they have a pollution impact that is significant and that people don’t often associate with data centers.

Then there are the power impacts on the community in terms of potential rate increases if the generation and needs of the data center aren’t compensated appropriately with the utilities — something that is very difficult for a utility to get right when figuring out these contracts.

There are power-quality issues.  The data centers are often very risk averse.  If there’s some sort of issue in the grid that they’re connected to, they’ll disconnect, taking a massive load off the grid.  That then makes it even more difficult for the grid to stabilize.  So, we’ve seen communities where there are more frequent brownouts or power outages as a result of the data center moving in.

And then there’s water.  There are examples where data centers come into a community and use more water daily than the entire community used before.  And this can use up the local watershed.  This is unheard of, historically, in terms of an industry moving into a community.

When water first got onto people’s radar related to data centers, the focus was on the aggregate total use.  That is not huge in terms of percentage of the national level of use.  But if you look more locally, there are projects where a data center is moving into a drought-sensitive area and using a massive amount of the community watershed.  That makes a huge impact on water availability for the long haul and water infrastructure locally.  Also, peak water usage can be six-to-10-plus times the typical rate.

Are there things that can be done to mitigate the impact of data centers on these local communities?

Yes.  Data centers are sometimes viewed primarily as the problem, but there are things we can do to minimize the community impact.  It’s also important to note that they are a symptom of a larger problem, which is that we have not modernized infrastructure in the US.

One thing that is often overlooked is that unlike other large electric loads that are coming online now (such as the electrification of transportation with electric vehicles and industry), data centers are actually well suited to help.  They have flexibility in terms of when and where they use energy and when and where they use water.  They have lots of opportunities for flexibility if the infrastructure can partner with them.  They’re also hugely instrumented, which means they’re highly controlled and smart in the way they do resource allocation.  And they have lots of capital to invest in infrastructure improvements to enable them to move into a community if the infrastructure is able and willing to take that investment and build on it.

That all means that you can work with a data center and really make a difference on the grid. So, yes, they’re a big part of the problem, but they are also potentially a big part of the solution.

Are there places where the right things are being done?

Everybody is struggling.  But there are some great success stories.  Finland has a data center that uses waste heat from the computer to heat the surrounding community.

There are also differences in how communities are regulating.  Canada is much better at regulating noise than the U.S.

What is most concerning about the rising demand for data centers?

The push right now to emphasize the speed in which data centers can deploy is potentially magnifying some of these issues.  Now, there’s a strong push that, to compete with China and to compete in AI, we need to build more and larger data centers as fast as possible.  As a result, people are looking for ways to allow data centers to move more quickly to construction with less regulation.

In this kind of move-quick-and-break-things approach, the thing that breaks is the local communities.  So, finding the balance where we can build data centers quickly while we’re creating incentives and we’re creating the technology and we’re really ensuring that the community impact is managed and understood as we build is crucial.

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There.  More than we may want to know about data centers, but, still, good information beyond political footballs.

I wrote earlier that, for me, I was not trying to come up with a bottom-line position.  But the data center issue represents another example where, if government officials used their heads and common sense, they could find a solution somewhere in the middle.

Not “no.”  Not “yes.”  But the middle.

If that were to occur, it would surprise, given the blight of government these days.