There should be no more data centres permitted in the coming years, and local authorities are not the right bodies to make the call
Aerial view of a Northern Virginia data center. The demand for water from the industry in the US state is already giving rise to serious concerns. Photograph: iStock. Between them those two locations make up 22 per cent of the global hyperscale data centre capacity. There are good reasons why they are major hubs for data storage – huge quantities are generated nearby and there are security issues relating to where much of the local data is stored.
However, just because we are attractive for data centre operators does not mean that unlimited investment is a good idea for those of us living on the island.Crossed wires on data centres But not only that – the cost of doing so is affecting everyone’s electricity bills. It is only fair that data centres should pay the full cost of expanding electricity capacity in a carbon-neutral manner, so that they don’t impose costs on the rest of us.
In the short run the construction of data centres can provide substantial employment, although when up and running they employ relatively few. However, in a country with a major housing shortfall and other infrastructure deficits we would be better deploying the limited supply of construction workers and building expertise to provide more homes and fix other infrastructural problems, rather than in adding to our stock of data centres.
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