Illinois continues to be a hot spot for data center construction. Rural areas are next on the list, and residents are worried.
Illinois has 178 data centers and 50 data center providers in major cities, according to the website Datacenters.com. To meet growth demands, rural areas of the state are under the microscope for new projects. A Brookings Institution study found local rural communities would benefit from a greater focus on accessibility and duration of data center jobs.
Tony Pipa, senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution, said concerns over jobs are valid, but residents also question whether the size and development of these centers are what is best for their community.
"People are worried about how it will affect the quality of life and even the integrity of the places where they're living," Pipa observed. "These are really large industrial developments; they take up a lot of land. What it means for the viewshed: there may be noise and light pollution."
The Brookings research points to electricity, water, and public service demands under rural systems, which may already be strained, as additional concerns. It notes local governments generally have limited authority over prices, service demands, and environmental impacts. Pipa stressed it leads to a loss of ability to control, engage, and help shape what might be happening.
Pipa pointed out that the large footprint of data centers right now is a result of current technology and demand. Solutions are needed to increase productivity and efficiency and to use fewer resources to get the same or even greater output. He added that the state of technology is changing very rapidly to meet the challenge.
"Chip technology; the use of water to cool," Pipa outlined. "There's proposals to put data centers in space, where you won't need coolants because it's cold. There's proposals to shrink data centers significantly."
Pipa expects to see technology and computing power improving at the same time the demand for usage increases, and believes the urgent race right now is driven by markets and geopolitical forces. In the meantime, he knows the fears will continue about building massive data centers.
Illinois News Connection originally published this story.
