They will require large amounts of water and electricity, but these massive installations also have other impacts on their neighbors. They can emit loud noises and bright lights, their industrial looks don't appeal to most people and, if they eventually become obsolete, they'll be mammoth husks full of hard-to-recycle materials.
In anticipation of data center applications, the Oklahoma City Planning Commission held a study session in late October to discuss how the city can respond to developers who want to move in. During his presentation, OKC's Assistant Utilities Director Josh Morgan said data centers have plenty of pitfalls, but cities have tools to avoid them.
"If done badly, it can have dire consequences on the community and the economy," Morgan said. "But there's absolutely ways that it can be built and run efficiently. We just have to make sure at this level that we're putting blocks in place to make sure that it is."
Most data centers follow a similar form factor. They're big blocks with tilt-up panels for walls and cooling system components on their flat roofs. Outside, a bank of large generators waits to supply backup power. At night, bright security lights kick on.
The noise and lights can be a nuisance to neighbors and to wildlife. But cities can require the facilities to keep their noise and light levels below set thresholds.
T.O. Bowman is a program director for the OKC Planning Department's Office of Sustainability. He said that, like with all the regulations communities are considering, rules about lights aren't meant to be just a thorn in developers' sides.
"This is a thing not to be punitive with it," Bowman said. "But there are real tangible benefits — reducing light pollution onto other properties, or helping with the migration of monarchs because we don't have a bunch of security lights pointing up at the sky."
But data center developers aren't primarily motivated by helping butterflies or letting their neighbors enjoy the peace of nighttime. They're primarily looking to make money.
Some sustainability practices, such as using treated wastewater for a data center's cooling system, are also cheaper than alternatives. But others, like recycling outdated electronics, are more costly for the data center. That's where state lawmakers and local officials need to intervene, Bowman said.
"Without a requirement there, there's nothing to compel someone to take that out of their bottom line to recycle something versus sending it to one of our high-volume landfills," Bowman said.
When data centers become obsolete
There are big questions about the lifespan of data center equipment, and what happens to it after that lifespan ends.
The speed at which computing progresses means it's possible — even likely — that the servers installed inside today's data centers will be obsolete long before they're no longer functional. It's true for many electronics — even if you still have a perfectly good PC that runs Windows 95, you may have upgraded since then to get the speed and capabilities of a newer computer.
On a bigger scale, there's a chance data centers themselves could become obsolete sooner than their developers might hope.
"Decommissioning plans, I think, are going to be really important to have just as a protection for the city," Bowman said.
The AI industry fueling the push for data centers is built on a largely circular economy. For the most part, outside investors aren't funding AI companies, and consumers aren't really paying much for their services yet. Instead, established tech companies are funding AI startups, which are then paying those tech companies for support services.
Some scholars say the AI economy isn't just a circle — it's a bubble. And some believe the bubble is showing some signs it's about to burst. If AI facilities go the way of Circuit City and Blockbuster, communities and neighbors could pay the price, through their coffers or their quality of life.
"The city years ago was preempted by the state from dealing directly with vacant and abandoned properties, and that has a strain on public safety responses and all kinds of other code enforcement responses," Bowman said. "I would hate to see these types of developments added to that list."
At the OKC study session, many officials expressed optimism that they could implement regulations and zoning requirements to protect residents from any downsides to data centers. Bowman said he hopes that's the case, because the stakes are high.
"I think everyone's got their hands out… but we definitely don't want to be left holding the bag," Bowman said. "The bag being large swaths of our city paved and standing with a building that was built for computers and not to house people."
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