Data centers are large, climate controlled, facilities for managing, processing, and storing data. They are used for everything from AI to online shopping to off-site data backups to high performance computing. Data center equipment hosts cloud services, websites, and applications, and databases.
While they enable amazing things – we must ensure that that are good citizens of Georgia. Data centers are power and water hogs yet create only about 30 permanent jobs; the average McDonald’s creates 50. Their only value is tax revenue, yet they get tax incentives.
The near-term pipeline of datacenters in Georgia will draw:
~4000 MW (Megawatts) of power => which is enough to power about 1.8M homes (40% of Georgia’s housing units).
~ 8 Billion (B) to 16 B Gallons of water per year => which is the annual water use of 160K-345K people.
$0.24 for every $1 of tax abated => A 2022 State Audit showed a negative return on tax breaks
Transparency would ensure Georgian’s understand
- That the taxes paid are commensurate with the resources they use
- The infrastructure burden can be recouped
- The fast-approaching demands on our state
- Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Meta are meeting their stated climate friendly pledges
We don’t quite know for certain:
–USA Data Centers lists 96 in Georgia
–Georgia Data Centers – Providers Map in Georgia, United States – lists 71
Approximately 30 permanent jobs at a Data Center – Why data centers fail to bring new jobs to small towns | TechRepublic
Power use can vary – but it can be estimated at about 50 Watts (W) of power per sq foot.
Thus – Project Sail at 4.9Million square feet would draw about 980 Megawatts (MW)
For comparison – Georgia Power estimates that 1MW of power can support 450 homes. Thus, Project Sail is about the equivalent of 441,000 homes.
Data center’s power consumption comes from
- Compute technology – millions of computer chips executing algorithms and computations on enormous quantities of data. All this data requires:
- Storage devices – hard disk drives that hold all the data. To get the data and answers back and forth to the data centers and within the data centers there must be:
- Network devices – that provide connectivity. All of these things combine to create a tremendous amount of heat which require complex
- Cooling systems – from AC units to water chillers.
Understanding Data Center Energy Consumption – C&C Technology Group
About 4000 MW of in use and planned.
In the first half of 2024 – there were 310 MW in service + 1290 MW planned. Since then, there have been multiple announcements including Newton (est at 520 MW), Sail (est to 980 MW), Amazon (est at 520 MW), and South Fulton (est at 380 MW).
This then totals to about 310 MW + 1290 MW + 520 MW + 980 MW + 520 MW + 380 MW = 4000 MW
Using the Georgia Power estimate of 1 MW for 450 homes. 4000 MW could then power 1.8 M homes.
Water estimates vary.
It is anywhere between 2 Gallons per Watt to 4.15 G per W.
Using the estimated 4000 MW of data centers and the 2 to 4 Gallons per Watt – we can estimate 8 Billion to 16.4 Billion Gallons of water per year.
For comparison, the average personal water withdrawal is 132 gallons per day.
In the US, where the average per capita water withdrawal is 48,180 gallons per year.
Thus, data centers in Georgia will be the equivalent of about 160K to 345K people. For comparison, Athens-Clarke is 129K people and the Savannah Metro area is 404K people
There is minimal reporting required for data centers in Georgia.
“Fewer than half of data center owners and operators are tracking the metrics needed to assess their sustainability and, in some cases, to meet pending regulatory requirements.” – Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2024 | Uptime Intelligence
Yes!
There are solutions from more efficient cooling, water recirculation, and algorithmic efficiency.