Really joined up thinking!
Really joined up thinking!
Sure, they bring in some money, but is it worth it? We have carbon emission goals to meet as well, but if the projects intended to replace carbon emitting power generators are used for datacenters instead, that won't happen. And using clean drinking water, which is treated, used, and dumped again in surface water, is just a huge waste of our aquifers, especially with climate change. We already saw the water companies reduce pressure and trigger other such water saving measures a few years ago when the stores ran empty, why should a data center take precedence over people? They should pay a premium for this kind of thing.
[0] https://nos.nl/artikel/2350450-opening-grootste-windpark-van... (translate link: https://nos-nl.translate.goog/artikel/2350450-opening-groots...)
[1] https://news.microsoft.com/2017/10/09/microsoft-ge-sign-agre...
[2] https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/drought-stricken-...
Also, data centers from big tech have a large environmental impact and cost a lot of energy, yet do not bring any jobs.