How unpopular are new data centers being designed to help train and run artificial intelligence models around the United States?
On Monday, six Florida organizations signed a letter sent to Congress by more than 200 other groups calling for a national moratorium on approval and construction of such facilities.
A typical A.I.-focused data center consumes as much electricity as 100,000 households, but the larger ones under construction will consume 20 times as much, according to the International Energy Agency.
“To say that data centers are unpopular right now is probably an understatement, to say the least,” admitted Dan Diorio, vice president for state policy for the Data Center Coalition, speaking beforethe Florida House Economic Infrastructure Committee Tuesday.
The industry has been “very responsive” to that public perception, Diorio said, and it’s important to inform local communities where such facilities might be located that data centers provide “significant job opportunities,” specifically in the skilled trades such as electricians, plumbers, and HVAC technicians.
“It’s about education and it’s about communication and upfront, honest conversations,” added Tiffany Cohen, VP with Florida Power & Light (FPL). “People want to be heard. The have valid concerns, and we need to address them.”
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FPL is the state’s largest investor-owned utility, servicing more than 6 million individual accounts comprising around 12 million Floridians. The company has said it welcomes data centers to its service areas and supports their development.
Under questioning from Rep. Linda Chaney, R-Pinellas County, Cohen told lawmakers that the Florida Public Service Commission recently approved two new tariffs that will require that “large load” customers that create data centers in Florida to pay in advance for their expected energy costs, and not FPL’s ratepayers.
“Instead of our general body paying for that, customers have to pay for that upfront,” Cohen told the committee.
“In return, as their load materializes on our system, we will give them a refund of that money. It’s a state law, we can’t change the law, but we will refund the money to them as their load materializes. So, it ensures that they show up and that the amount of power that they say they’re going to take from us, they actually do, but it also forces them to pay those costs upfront. Which has never been done before.”
Data centers use large amounts of water, primarily for cooling servers. But Diorio said new closed-loop cooling systems enable use of both recycled wastewater and fresh water, allowing water supplies to be used multiple times.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last week announced his proposal to protect Floridians from footing the bill for A.I. data centers and to empower local governments to reject their development in their communities. He wants to prohibit utilities from charging Florida residents to support hyperscale data center development, including electric, gas, and water utilities.
Tuesday’s committee hearing was the first of 14 the Florida House has scheduled through Thursday to discuss AI use in different facets of the Sunshine State’s industries.
The letter sent to Congress this week calling for a national moratorium on data centers was organized by Food & Water Watch.
“Floridians are facing some of the highest electricity bills in the country. The explosion of data centers driven by Big Tech’s greed represents an unprecedented threat to communities suffocating under a crushing affordability and climate crisis,” said Brooke Ward, senior Florida organizer for that organization, in a written statement.
“The only acceptable action to protect people and the environment is to halt the expansion of this unnecessary, dangerous, and under-researched industry in order to determine the true depth of harm. Floridians simply cannot afford a reckless ask-for-forgiveness-and-correct-later approach.”
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