Data centers could derail clean energy progress

Data centers have huge implications for Virginia, which is why in December 2023 the state authorized a study of the data center industry on our quality of life, environment, tax dollars and electric bills.

But the industry isn’t on hold until that study is complete. The Virginia-based developer Balico LLC filed documents with planning authorities in Pittsylvania County to build the largest data center campus to date on 2,200 acres of rural farmland, which would include 70 data center buildings connected to a gas-fired power plant. Gas consists mostly of methane, a powerful global warming pollutant, and often leaks during drilling and transport.

The Pittsylvania County Planning Commission was set consider the request from Balico at a meeting on Thursday, but the company withdrew the application. I intends to submit a revised one.

Residents of Pittsylvania County are rightly concerned about the proposal. As the planning commission prepares to eventually take up this proposal, it’s important that they, and the public at large, understand the larger context and what it means for Virginia.

Data centers are giant warehouses filled with computer servers that process the data we use when we send an email, watch a YouTube video or download an app. Virginia is already home to the largest concentration of data centers in the United States and this facility, if built, would be the largest of them all.

Running data centers is incredibly energy-intensive. Data centers already consumer more than 25% of Virginia’s electricity. One new data center could require enough electricity to power 750,000 average U.S. homes. Exploding demand for artificial intelligence (AI) could drive electricity demand from data centers up even more. This exploding energy growth comes at a time when Virginians are already using more electricity to replace the use of fossil fuels in our vehicles and homes.

Several years ago, Virginia set a goal to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2045. If electricity demand keeps surging, that gets a lot harder. In fact, there are already signs of backsliding. The Clover coal-fired power plant in Halifax has already had its closure date pushed back. And Dominion Energy plans to add at least 1,447 megawatts of new fossil-fuel power generation to meet rising power demand.

Whatever your thoughts are on the prospects of AI to solve societal problems, it’s clear that keeping old coal plants open longer, and building new gas plants, is a bad idea. Virginia needs to stay on track with its clean energy commitments. The record-levels of wind and solar coming online today need to replace dirty and dangerous forms of energy, not supplement them.

It’s past time for Virginia to have a real conversation about whether growth for data centers is necessary. How do data centers improve our lives? And, to the extent that access to unprecedented computing power is necessary and beneficial, how can we grow that capacity in the right way without compromising clean air, clean water and a livable future for all Virginians?

For one, lawmakers should eliminate taxpayer subsidies for data centers. The companies using these — like Google, Amazon, and Meta — are some of the most profitable in the world. They don’t need taxpayers footing the bill for their infrastructure.

Secondly, to the extent that data centers actually improve our lives, lawmakers should focus on making data centers more energy-efficient and encourage or require their electricity demand to be met with new renewable energy that wasn’t already planned.

Lastly, we need to rethink the permitting process for data center development. Right now, the bulk of permitting decisions happen at the local level, but the impact of those decisions is felt across the entire commonwealth in terms of air quality and meeting Virginia’s commitment to 100% clean energy by mid-century.

Some Virginia lawmakers have started to focus on the problems caused by data centers. Earlier this year, Delegate Richard Sullivan introduced legislation to make sure that data centers would only qualify for tax breaks if they maximized energy efficiency and found renewable resources.

Bottomline: We must not allow AI or any other to-be-dreamt-of energy use in the future, to divert us from the most important task of the day, which is getting off of fossil fuels and creating a future powered with 100% clean and renewable energy.