Hidden Costs of the Cloud: Data Centers in Virginia

Virginia is undergoing a massive economic, technological, and environmental transformation, all centered around the activities of one industry: data centers.

This massive industry is continuing to grow extremely fast, requiring huge amounts of energy, land, and water to operate, resulting in widespread community impacts. Yet, the Commonwealth does not currently have any regulatory oversight of data center development.

This explosive growth of data centers threatens to derail state efforts to meet climate goals, improve air and water quality, advance land conservation, and protect national and state parks.

Utilities are legally obligated to serve these data centers, no matter how much energy they require or the impact to the transmission grid. Virginia ratepayers are currently subsidizing this buildout for some of the largest and wealthiest companies in the world – which is patently unfair.

Now is the time to demand accountability and transparency. Urge your elected officials to support meaningful reform and oversight of the data center industry.

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00:00 Introduction
00:43 The Basics
01:59 Acceleration
03:03 Energy
05:28 Fairness
06:47 Conclusion

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News clips used:

#datacenters #ai #artificialintelligence #virginia #loudoun #northernvirginia #environment #climatechange #climatejustice #cloudcomputing #datacenteralley #conservation

[theonlywoodyshoes]

Allow me to translate:

Data Centre = a building where your personal information is collected and sold.

The Cloud = Someone else’s computer/server.

[nilslivetlanga]

It's everywhere the same with big data centers. Local politicians of the liberal or right wing allow these kind of developments to happen, many times promising great economical benefits to local society, only needing some security guards because day to day operations are all done remotely. And then you have to provide them power and the rest of the infrastructure they need.
Over here in the Netherlands we have seen the same scheme of data centers popping up. Local politicians are feted by the big companies behind data centers. Over here landowners are in cahoots with politicians, mostly farmers - because of the lack of wastelands - who are offered a big chunk of money. Energy is provided by wind turbines and solar farms partially financed by energy transition tax payed by end consumers not commercial consumers. Microsoft and Google did the green washing in their communication and took the credits, not the debits. Story continues with lease constructions and tax schemes (avoidance) that are to the disadvantage of society as a whole. Our central government finally woke up from dreamland in 2022, preventing Meta from building a 24+ acres, 70+ MW data center. Good luck over there.

I have some questions about this presentation. It suggested that the general consumer is subsidizing these centers. How is that happening? Is it a higher cost per unit of power? If so, how much? Is the benefit of a good internet connection worth the additional cost? We know or should know that increased power consumption per person is going to be the norm for the foreseeable future. It would have been nice if some real numbers could have been provided during this nicely done video.

[jeanwright]

Well done! A good tool for the basics of data centers.

[wofat]

These data centers should build their own power supply systems.

[dianadietz]

Excellent video and just what I need to share to raise public awareness in Fayetteville, GA where our elected officials are bragging about having brought “the world’s largest data center campus” to our neighborhoods. This is a 615 acre (7 million sq. ft.) monstrosity c/o QTS. Our town population is only 19k and we have the second largest per capita income in the state so we don’t need the handful of average paying jobs. The deforestation of 600 acres that’s taking place now has already polluted the wetlands and creeks. My heart is breaking for the wildlife being cruelly killed and displaced. 😢

[klind]

One data center that I went to for Facebook took 30 MW for half of the plant

[Shadow_Banned_Conservative]

I have to wonder how many of us on private water wells throughout the state will be affected by datacenters constructed near our homes, in addition to the electricity requirements for them. It seems that many small counties have taken a shift in recent years politically and are now courting datacenters over businesses, looking strictly at the tax revenue without concern for the impact on their residents.

[semuhphor]

Some of the points you make are good. the use of natural gas is potentially putting out pollutants. At this point, we don't have efficient ways to store renewable energy (wind, solar, etc), so it can't provide a continuous feed of power sufficient for the data industry. One thing that is overlooked is the ability to use spent nuclear fuels. CNBC hand an article on June 2, 2022 entitled, "The energy in nuclear waste could power the U.S. for 100 years, but the technology was never commercialized". I once spoke to a Dept. of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission nuclear physicist who told me that we could build completely solid reactors that could be fueled by spent nuclear fuel and buried 30 feet below ground ... completely safe, and they could power neighborhoods for 30 years. Certainly larger devices could be used for the data centers and not require large, distant infrastructure. Unfortunately, there are groups that stand against nuclear power, so we have to continue to use gas, oil, and coal. What a shame.

[spikedpsycho]

Build nuclear plants
Emission free
Ocean water cooling
Air cooled data centers

[thomasgcero]

Make data centers function off of solar .

[Sayuri]

Suggestion for your next video:
Explain how humans can control the weather only if politicians are given more power and money 😂

[davidquinn]

Wait till you see how much power it takes to run all the EV''s everyone says they want

[carloslemos]

1 - Did not compare datacenter growth with other states.
2 - Provided no evidence that electric is being subsidized by residents.

[dirtygrease]

This video, while informative is factually incorrect. There are substantial regulations regarding the construction of a data center.

It also fails to ask the simple question - why do we need data centers. If you're reading this, the answer is at your fingertips.

[indigop]

2:30 i'm so glad that idiot said " Billion with a B ". There I was thinking it was billion with a sack of worms and a plumber's wrench!

[joecummings]

Just call Elon, he'll install solar roofs and megapacks. That should easily cover all their energy needs and make enough to sell back for extra revenue 🙄

[gnagyusa]

If we switched all server code to run C-code vs PHP, Python, Swift and other crappy, slow languages, we could cut energy usage by 90%.

[Garibaldem]

Such a bullshit video. The fact about data centers is great!!!
Discussion should be on energy sources.

[TheMotleyPatriot]

Don't let rural citizens have money for education and salaries for members of the community. Let's sequester land in permanent conservation easements and send those tax credits to Wall Street billionaires!