Data centers facing opposition over environmental concerns

As locals and campaigners protest, can operators allay their fears?

"Does the council really know North Ockendon and its residents? Do its councilors really want to represent the people who voted for them?"

Ian Pirie, co-ordinator of Havering Friends of the Earth, is fighting the construction of a new data center on the eastern edge of London.

Local residents are concerned that the proposed development by Digital Reef would damage the local environment, and that its construction would lead to unacceptable levels of traffic and noise.

According to Pirie, the site is a site of interest for nature conservation (SINC) and is next to a conservation area, making it unsuitable for development.

"We get the distinct impression that the council gave the go-ahead for this proposal first and then tried to think of justifications for it afterward," says Pirie.

All over the world, data centers are being constructed at a rapid pace to cope with growing demand, which is fuelled by cloud computing and the growth of AI.

In Europe alone, according to international real estate advisor Savills, 94 new data center projects are due to be delivered in the next four years, totaling approximately 2,800 MW in capacity.

Protests spread worldwide

And, increasingly, locals and environmentalists are rebelling. In Uruguay, for example, campaigners are fighting Google's plans to build a data center near Montevideo, its second in Latin America.

There have been objections from day one, with concerns about water usage and the environmental impact succeeding in getting the project downgraded in size from two data centers to one, reducing capacity by two-thirds. The development will also now be air-cooled, and the authorities have also specified that its peak annual energy consumption mustn't exceed 560 GWh.

However, campaigners are still unhappy: "In short, the [Ministry of the Environment's] MA's final report confirms that Google's data center will increase our CO2 emissions by 25,000 tonnes and generate 86 tonnes of toxic garbage per year, will not pay taxes and will only create 50 jobs," says environmental campaigner Daniel Pena, an academic at the University of the Republic in Montevideo.

Other protests have been taking place in Virginia, where local residents are concerned that a proposed data center will be too close to housing and will increase electricity bills, and in the Netherlands, where environmentalists are worried that data centers are using too much energy and water.

Sometimes, complaints come from industry rather than local residents. In Pennsylvania, for example, energy companies American Electric Power (AEP) and Exelon are objecting to a proposed Amazon data center, claiming that it wouldn't be paying its fair share of power transmission fees.

Developers respond to concerns

So what can be done? Some objections could be avoided by, for example, picking less attractive sites, converting existing industrial developments into data centers, and working to minimize local disruption.

Many data center developers in the UK are sweetening the pill by creating wildlife havens on their sites, creating jobs, and offering free tech training to local residents.

And the big players are all working to keep their environmental impact down. In June, for example, Microsoft launched its Datacenter Community Pledge, promising to address societal challenges and create benefits for communities through its builds.

It says that by next year, it will procure 100% renewable energy globally and that it will become carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030. It also claims that it will deliver 'significant' economic, social, and environmental benefits to local communities through educational programs, grants, and other initiatives.

Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services (AWS) last year released an economic impact study which, it says, found that its data centers bring more jobs, more local investment, and more education and training opportunities for locals.

It, too, says it already uses recycled water for cooling in twenty of its data centers around the world, and that it will be water positive by 2030.

Regulatory changes

Legislation may make it easier, both directly and indirectly, to build more data centers. In the UK, for example, the new Labour government has indicated that it plans to make it easier for proposals to get through the planning process.

"The deputy prime minister has said that when she intervenes in the economic planning system, the benefit of development will be a central consideration and that she will not hesitate to review an application where the potential gain for the regional and national economies warrant it," said chancellor Rachel Reeves.

"And I welcome her decision to recover two planning appeals already, for data centers in Buckinghamshire and in Hertfordshire."

Meanwhile, new EU legislation may also make new data centers more acceptable to locals and environmentalists, by requiring operators to report their data centers' key performance indicators.

The European Commission says this will encourage new designs and efficiency improvements, reducing energy and water consumption while promoting the use of renewable energy, increased grid efficiency, and the reuse of waste heat in nearby facilities and heat networks.

The bottom line is that demand for data centres will carry on rising, and that more and more will need to be built. A better balance between economic imperatives and environmental considerations is at least now starting to emerge.