Data Center Backlash: Why Communities Are Saying No

Following intense community pushback, San Marcos in Texas enacted a moratorium on new data center developments, while a massive $24.7 billion development in Prince William County was significantly delayed, with Culpeper County seeing a $12 billion project unanimously rejected by its Planning Commission.

There was opposition too in Chile, when communities and environmental organisations organized major push backs against data center construction, as well as in Canelones in Uruguay, against Google’s $200-million data center project proposed drawing 7.6 million liters of water daily directly from the public drinking supply.

Community pushback took place in Johor, Malaysia in February this year in the Gelang Patah district to protest a mega data center project developed for China’s Zdata Technologies, with residents of Inzai and Nagareyama in Japan raising formal objections and protested data center installations proposed in prime.

Apart from Africa, community push backs increasingly follow the construction of data centers, with residents and non-governmental organisations spearheading protests, delaying construction efforts.

In the US, data centers account for more than four percent of total electricity consumption, roughly three percent of Europe’s total electricity demand in 2024 at an estimated 96 TWh of electricity, and accounting for 1.5 percent of the global electricity supply.

Data centers account for the consumption of up to five million gallons of water per day, totaling around 1.8 billion gallons per year, matching a town of 10,000 to 50,000 residents, with companies like Meta reporting global consumptions exceeding 813 million gallons in a year, with 95 percent going directly to data center operations.

Data centers are responsible for roughly 0.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, with some independent analyses suggesting actual emissions from major tech corporations are nearly eight times higher than reported.

Data centers therefore worsen climate through electricity generation, the amount of emissions generated through the consumption of water, and through many of its other activities.

Global data center power demand could surge to 600 to 800 TWh by 2030, but this might not align with 1.5° C climate targets, which stipulates that average weighted carbon intensity for data centers must fall below 100 gCO₂/kWh by 2050.

By 2050, servers alone are projected to consume 581 billion kilowatt-hours (BkWh) annually in high-demand scenarios, with roughly 27% of global data centers facing severe threats from climate-related hazards like flooding, extreme heat, and storms.

Despite green energy initiatives, data center CO₂ emissions are expected to rise from roughly 180 million tonnes in 2024 to 300 million tonnes by 2035, with long-term emissions locked in if coal and gas generation are prolonged.

In sum, data centers could provide problems going forwards through a surge in power demand, consumption needs of their servers, and increased carbon dioxide emissions.