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The Benefits and Risks of Datacenters: �Why the Details Matter

Coltran Hophan-Nichols

Director of Systems and Research Computing

Montana State University

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Datacenters are Not New

  • We’ve been building datacenters for about 50 years
    • There have been several datacenters in the Gallatin valley alone for several decades with many more across Montana
  • Many facets of modern life depend on datacenters, and you likely connect to them hundreds to thousands of times per day
    • Every debit and credit card transaction
    • Every website you visit
    • Nearly every app on phone, tablet, TV, or computer
    • Critical infrastructure including power, water, emergency response, etc.
    • Phone calls and texts
    • Streaming video
    • Research and education
    • And much, much more
  • The last few years have seen rapid expansion of very large datacenters

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Not all Datacenters are the Same

Minimal Impact: Small Datacenters (under 10MW)

    • Critical infrastructure for schools, local businesses, municipalities, telecom, research, utilities, public safety, etc.

Low Impact: �Medium Datacenters (10-100MW)

    • Critical infrastructure for large businesses, state governments, etc.

Expanding Rapidly: Large Datacenters (100-500MW)

    • Cloud and tech company services (Microsoft 365, Google Cloud, Cloud hosting for small businesses, etc.), global corporations, national governments

New: Hyperscale Datacenters �(Over 500MW)

    • Artificial intelligence and very large cloud provider services

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Local to Global Impacts of Large and Hyperscale Datacenters

Nearby Sound

Local jobs

Local and regional tax revenue

National Security

Nearby pollution during power outages

Local land use

Regional power costs

National economic strength

Local water use

Global carbon footprint

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Datacenter Power, Cooling, and Water Use

Evaporative Cooling

Removes heat by evaporating water in a cooling tower

Energy efficient but can use about as much water as a typical golf course for a large datacenter

Doesn’t work well in cold temperatures

Dry Cooling

Removes heat with a compressor and closed coolant loop like a home air conditioning system

Uses almost no water but consumes more energy

Works well in colder climates

Water vs. Power Use

While datacenters in the US use only 0.4% of our water (1/4th that of Oil and Gas), they consume almost 6% of our power

Water use is typically only a major impact in desert regions or small water systems

Growing datacenter power use is one of several contributing factors to rising electricity cost and associated carbon emissions

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In Montana

  • Existing datacenters are small or medium

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  • Several large datacenters have been proposed but only one is under active development in Butte

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  • One hyperscale datacenter has broken ground north of Billings
    • On 5000-acre parcel with setbacks from local community (only a small portion will be the actual datacenter)
    • Projected to use about as much water as a typical irrigated alfalfa field
    • Projected to use nearly as much power as the entire state does today

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Potential Strategies to Mitigate Negative Impacts of Large and Hyperscale Datacenter Development

Nearby sound and pollution can be mitigated with adequate setback or buffer zone requirements

Local land use is on par with other industries

Local water use is on par with other industries and can be mitigated with dry cooling requirements

Pressures on regional power prices can be mitigated with regulations requiring datacenters to pay for upgrades to power generation and transmission or to produce their own power on-site

Global carbon footprints can be limited with regulations requiring datacenter developers to pay for new carbon-free power generation but are difficult to fully eliminate

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Summary

Smaller datacenters are nothing new and are critical for modern life

In the past few years, very large and hyperscale datacenters have proliferated, primarily to support AI services

Unlike smaller datacenters, hyperscale datacenters can have significant localized impact on nearby neighbors with noise and/or local water use

The greatest challenge of today’s hyperscale datacenter buildout is power consumption which can contribute to raising electricity prices and carbon footprints

Strategies exist to reduce the negative impacts of datacenters, but they can also slow development