Piedmont Environmental Council Public Meeting Part I, What a Data Center needs to be Operational

Approximately 150 people attended the recent Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) public meeting at The Center in Charlottesville to discuss Virginia data centers. PEC operates in central Virginia supporting the following communities; Albemarle / Cville, Clarke, Culpeper, Fauquier, Greene, Loudoun, Madison, Orange, and Rappahannock. Their mission is to protect and restore the lands and waters of the Virginia Piedmont, while building stronger, more sustainable communities. Some of the jurisdictions they support are the fastest growing in the nation where data center expansion is becoming a central issue. 

What does a data center need to be operational? Below is a summary of the PEC presentation given by Land Use and Policy staff members Julie Bolthouse and Rob McGinnis.

Every data center is different and has different requirements, none are alike. Currently the PEC is the only agency that tracks the buildout of data centers and today they have identified that our state is the data center capital of the world and has 3 times more data centers than the next largest on their list, Beijing, China. 

There are some common requirements for each data center: The need for exorbitant amounts of energy and water plus backup generators to keep equipment running 24/7. Infrastructure build out including electric power substations and rows of super sized transmission lines that are a blight to the landscape and could traverse through neighborhoods. Other structures onsite are water and gas holding tanks, rooftop cooling equipment, waste water pipelines and pump stations, and security fencing. 

Electronics naturally produce heat in order to operate. Larger systems require cooling equipment to remove heat to protect computers. Each of us has experienced cell phones, tablets, and computers generating heat. We've even heard a fan running on our desk top computer to remove the heat buildup. When electric systems fail or peak demand puts pressure on the system, back up generators must kick on to protect equipment and keep the data flowing night and day. 9,000 gas diesel data center generators are currently permitted in Virginia and the allowed run time is regulated by the EPA. Most of us have heard a neighbors small generator running during a power outage but a data center can have 20 - 40 train car sized diesel generators running 6 - 12 hours a day. The greater the concentration of data centers, the worse the air pollution and the greater the health impact. Computer systems, gas plants, and nuclear facilities are water cooled. Water usage that is not recycled and reused is consumptive which means it is lost as it evaporates into the air along with pollutants. When a closed loop system is used they too will experience water loss and diverting treated / recycled water can still impact local stream health.

Just one data center can consume a city worth of power. Racks and racks and rows and rows of computers need electricity to run. One Gigawatt (GW) of power requires one nuclear reactor to produce it. In Virginia it is estimated that 28 GW of power must be built out by 2039 to meet growing data center demand and to pay for it the average customer bill will increase by 125%. That level of power is equivalent to nearly 7,000,000 homes or 2,000 Walmart Supercenters. Dominion Energy, who operates in 20 states, has 47 GW under contract in Virginia alone to meet the explosive demand load. The electricity is dependent upon the delivery from out of state transmission lines; Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia and also gas pipeline routes that continually are being expanded deeper into the South and farther into the North. A gas plant in one community can be firing up a data center in another community. There is no other industry that demands this much energy other than possibly a steel mill. Dominion energy is applying for approval to use non-renewable sources (natural gas, coal, and reactors) to power this infrastructure. The current administration encourages dirty power which is often not compatible with meeting local renewal energy targets.

Next week I will blog about the impact of a recent ordinance proposal change in Albemarle County as presented by PEC.

~ Rebecca 

The data on Virginia Data Centers, Coming your way soon

The State of Virginia houses more data centers than any other market (including whole countries) in the world. 586 centers are currently operational but plans for what seems to be an unlimited number with little restrictions are in the works. The new AI push is to build data centers everywhere and anywhere resources can be found to be gobbled up to support them. Our own governor put corporate needs before citizen concerns by stopping a state level non-partisan reform bill that was to FINALLY regulate data centers. Leaving it up to each county to define their own playing rules, if any.

Data centers have become the modern day gold rush as counties reap revenue that seems to be too good to be true. Hosting companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Digital Realty, and Iron Mountain. Loudoun County is the leader in the state with 300 data centers with 49,000,000 square feet under roof. Loudoun County is just now getting around to restrictions, referring to centers as the Goose that lays the Golden Egg.

It was interesting to me that on a chat group, someone suggested to turn a vacant mall into a data center. That's a fine idea but the modern day data center is frequently massive, dwarfing most malls. The Loudoun county "eco-center" (as our governor refers to Virginia data centers), encompasses an area of 8 pentagons (referred to as a digital city hiding in plain site).

One example is what is becoming a blossoming eco-complex that started with 2 Amazon data centers in Louisa county. Just last week, before the data centers have even been built, Amazon announced the desire to add another data center. In Louisa there are currently 4 proposed data center campuses encompassing 2,600 acres. To look at this another way, this is 1,970 football fields in size. 

Data centers run 24/7 and require massive amounts of electricity and water to cool equipment. Using Louisa as an example, as it happens to be located in the next county over from where I live, Dominion Energy owns the 2 Lake Anna nuclear reactors and will be upgrading that facility to handle electricity for the proposed data center campuses. Water will be routed from the local reservoir that is an active fishing and recreation area that currently is the primary water sources for that county.

A recent study found the data center industry both helps and hurts Virginia. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for data center development in our state which puts a lot of pressure on natural resources and electricity generation. Serious ramping up of all forms of energy production will have to happen to support the growing demand.

This year Dominion Energy is asking for a rate hike that would increase your monthly bill by an average of $21 by 2027. In 2022, the utility delivered 36% of all power to customers by natural gas, 29% by nuclear, 22% by third party purchase, 5% by coal, and 5% from renewables. Their long-term plan to meet the demand is to get energy from every basket available but natural gas, coal, and nuclear plants are main sources of energy. In Albemarle County, Dominion Energy is building a solar farm on our capped Ivy landfill which is a great way to utilize land that can't be used for much of anything else but it is a drop in the bucket.

Why have data centers become problematic. Mainly because they convert massive expanses of land and use vast amounts of resources (electricity and water) and are not good neighbors (noise, light and air pollution, and create hazardous ewaste). Community planners have created electric and water resources based on consumption by residential customers and much smaller business footprints. How close is too close to living beside a data center and what does it do to property values? 1/3 of all data centers in Virginia are near to residential areas. What is the lasting impact to quality of life? I would imagine the answer to the last 2 questions is obvious - NOT GOOD. Given data centers are spreading in our state faster than they can be regulated or even mapped, this should cause serious concern to each and every citizen. Albemarle county where I live is currently revising their data center ordinances. 

Putting greed over community sensibilities and regulations can end up being destructive. Without guardrails and community discourse the goose may leave unsuspecting citizens holding a rotten egg. 

~Rebecca