50% of energy must go back to local communities
A new mandate requires data centers to return half their energy to local communities.
By Ken Adams ·
Local communities across New England will see half of the energy generated by AI data centers return to them, as President Donald Trump has announced a mandate requiring these data centers to give or sell excess energy back to the local community. This comes as rising electricity costs, noise pollution, water shortages, air pollution, deforestation, and more have made data centers a source of frustration for many small communities. The mandate aims to ease the pain of local communities and make data centers more palatable to them.
The mandate is part of a broader effort by the Trump Administration to stay ahead of China in the AI arms race and to win back some favor from local communities. The mandate builds on previous orders that required data centers to make their own electricity, and excess electricity from their generation could be used to further lower the electricity cost for the locals, including a recently passed act that orders data centers to shoulder the cost for grid upgrades to avoid taking it from the taxes of local communities. Data centers that were highly unpopular in a certain area have become extremely popular when a financial deal is struck.
Whether the dividends will be enough to win over communities is yet to be known, as the economic aspect is only one facet of the problem. There are still plenty of problems to face; enormous water consumption, ecological damage, and pollution are still major challenges that make AI data centers a hard sell anywhere they’re located. The mandate is a gesture with little actual benefit to anyone, and it is unlikely to bring about the change it promises.
The mandate is not a near-term fix, as the kind of power generation that data centers are installing in the short-run is primarily using noisy, polluting, and inefficient gas-powered generators. Just about anything else that data centers do for power generation is going to take quite a bit longer to come online. The mandate is likely to be a zero sum outcome, as the depreciation of assets and operating costs will ensure that it is unlikely to bring about the change it promises.
Source: Tom's Hardware
