As interest in data centers continues to crop up in North Texas, so does concern among residents who are trying to understand just how much water and energy the data processing facilities use.
They’re also raising questions about noise and air pollution from those facilities.
Data centers are known for requiring up to several million gallons of water a day and several megawatts of electricity. Representatives of data centers say they understand the emerging facilities can be highly demanding of natural resources.
Impacts on natural resources and residents’ quality of life can vary, depending on the operations, equipment and technology that the supercomputer hubs are using, academics say.
Data center representatives say the industry wants to promote sustainable operations while also providing economic benefits, job opportunities and the necessary infrastructure for growing demands in technology, data processing and AI.
Among a plethora of concerns from the public, the centers’ strain on energy and water resources tends to be the most cited.
A data center’s water footprint is defined by how the facilities are cooled, climate and weather conditions and even the power plants that supply their energy, said Michael Webber, the University of Texas at Austin’s mechanical engineering chair, whose research includes energy, grid reliability and water.
The supercomputer hubs are usually equipped with cooling loops, both for a facility’s interior and exterior. Water usage will largely depend on whether the facility is air- or water-cooled, Webber said.
Air cooling methods require significantly less water, whereas the amount needed for water cooling can be “intensive,” Webber explained.
A data center can feature a closed cooling loop, which Webber likened to a car radiator. “You put water in, and then you close it, and you don't have to add water again until maybe every decade or so,” he said.
Fort Worth Report informative session: data centers
Texas communities are experiencing a boom in data center development. Residents and communities have questions about the sustainability of the facilities and more.
On Aug. 20, a Fort Worth Report panel of academics and industry representatives will meet for a measured discussion that attempts to answer the question: What will data centers look like in Fort Worth?
A self-described “mega-scale campus,” QTS has operated its far north Fort Worth data center since 2008, with the second phase underway. The company uses closed-loop cooling systems that “do not consume water for cooling once operational,” said QTS chief operations officer Ryan Hunter. That doesn’t cover water use for traditional daily needs, such as irrigation, plumbing, landscaping and drinking.
The company’s monthly water use is less than that of five households combined, Hunter said in a statement.
QTS uses reclaimed water at its Fort Worth facility to offset its need for municipal supplies, the company’s website states.
Webber pointed to Microsoft’s planned data center on 1,500 acres in Medina County as an example of how data centers can greatly reduce water consumption. According to a Texas Monthly report, Microsoft agreed to reduce its water needs by 85% — or 150,000 gallons a day — by switching from evaporative cooling after being asked by a Central Texas water supplier to reevaluate those demands.
Black Mountain and Edged Data Centers, which also have plans for data centers in Fort Worth, have previously stated their facilities would use closed-loop systems.
CyrusOne is one of six data centers planned for the Fort Worth area. CyrusOne’s water footprint across all of its facilities is less than that of two Coca-Cola bottling plants, said Kyle Myers, company vice president of environmental, health and safety, sustainability and risk.
The company uses air cooling, eliminating the need for water for that purpose, Myers explained. In an effort to be water-conscious, the company began a program in 2020 to put 20% of the water that CyrusOne draws back into local supplies. CyrusOne first launched the program at its Chandler, Arizona, facility, where water resources are also strained.
“It’s not just that we consume very little,” Myers said. “We've committed to doing that everywhere where water's scarce.”
Unfortunately, reducing water used for cooling can also mean that energy usage goes up sharply.
There are downsides to both water- and air-cooled systems. Using more water-intense methods increases the need for electricity, said Data Center Coalition executive vice president Dan Diorio, whereas using less power often calls for more water.
Advancements in technology have allowed data centers the flexibility to switch between water- and air-cooled systems, depending on grid conditions and water supply, Diorio added.
Spokespersons for current Fort Worth data center operators Meta, TierPoint, Csquare and WUSF 5 Rock Creek East LP, did not respond to the Report’s requests for interviews. Nor did representatives of Black Mountain.
Edged declined the Report’s request for an interview.
Growing power demands strains Texas grid
Data centers are growing faster than the Electric Reliability Council of Texas — or ERCOT — can build more infrastructure to support their power needs, said Mohammad Islam, associate professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington. He teaches courses on data center design and sustainable computing.
“We do not want to harm the power grid, because eventually the people of Texas will be affected,” Islam said. “At the same time, we do not want to lose this opportunity of growth.”
Before the data center processing boom hit, large data centers traditionally used no more than several tens of megawatts of electricity, Islam said. What he described as “extremely large” facilities now require upward of 100 megawatts.
A megawatt can power about 200 Texas homes during peak energy demands, according to ERCOT.
There are 248 data centers with plans to locate in Texas, according to a report from The Texas Tribune, including six in the Fort Worth area.
Various data center developments across the state are stalled because the power grid doesn’t have the capacity to bring them all online, Islam said.
Data centers that build their own power plants or generators can bypass the electric grid, Islam said. However, plants or generators running on diesel, natural gas or coal can worsen air pollution, he explained.
“We do not want those power plants next to our people,” Islam said.
The alternative? Renewable energy, Islam said, such as solar- or wind-powered plants.
The state is already home to various forms of renewable energy, Diorio said, which has the attention of the data center industry.
Data centers are the largest consumers of renewable energy, said Myers, of CyrusOne. The company aims to become carbon neutral by 2030 but is already investing in cleaner forms of energy.
“Everyone in the data center space acknowledges that we're pretty intensive when it comes to power consumption,” Myers said. “We're not just going to wait until 2029. … We are driving the investment in renewable, carbon-free sources.”
QTS prioritizes carbon-free and renewable energy to provide more power generation for its data centers than the facilities use, Hunter said.
If improvements to the grid are necessary for its data center, Hunter said, QTS invests in those upgrades, which can also benefit the community.
Edged previously stated that its facility in southwest Fort Worth would have its own electrical substation, mitigating the need to pull from the power grid.
Black Mountain CEO Rhett Bennett said in a town hall meeting in March that the company would not build a gas-powered plant. However, permitting records from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality show the company is allowed to operate generators and power plants in various counties, including Tarrant.
Webber said so long as data centers and developers across the state continue to pursue renewables, the grid can remain stable.
“If (ERCOT) stops building, we might have problems at some point,” Webber said.
Air, noise pollution
Diesel-fired generators emit soot or particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and other harmful pollutants, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, all of which can have serious effects on environmental and human health. Natural gas-fired plants also emit carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
When there are more than a dozen generators in a given area, air quality is compromised, Webber said.
Diesel generators also tend to be the noisiest infrastructure, he explained.
The research on noise produced by data center infrastructure is limited, said Richard Neitzel, a University of Michigan environmental health sciences professor whose research studies exposure to noise. However, evidence has shown the facilities can produce enough noise to disrupt one’s sleep, which can lead to cardiovascular health effects later in life, Neitzel explained.
The supercomputers are not likely to cause hearing loss, Neitzel said.
Aside from power generation, a data center’s water use can impact the level of noise being produced.
Water cooling is significantly quieter than air cooling, which typically uses turbines, Neitzel said.
“All of those things and more combined are going to have an impact on how much noise the community gets,” he said.
Noise is an issue for a minority of data centers across the country, Diorio said. They do not tend to exceed noise levels that are produced by other sources, such as airports, lawn mowers or jet engines, Diorio added.
However, developers typically conduct sounds studies and site design to prevent such impacts to the community.
“It's not very common. … There's a lot of things you can do at the front end to ensure that you are being a good steward there,” Diorio said about noise.
Black Mountain has been met with concerns about noise from residents. The company’s plans for its southeast data center call for a buffer between its campus and nearby homes and other properties.
Islam emphasized that the need for responsible development and to hold policymakers and regulators accountable will increase as supercomputer hubs continue to be built.
“As a state, even as a country, we want to allow more data centers to be built, but we do not want to just blindly let them build something and then everyone suffers,” Islam said.
Nicole Lopez is the environment reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.lopez@fortworthreport.org.
The Report’s environment coverage is supported by the Marilyn Brachman Hoffman Foundation.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
