ATLANTA – An early task for Georgia lawmakers in determining how to regulate data centers should be determining how much electricity and water they’re sucking up, the head of a local nonprofit group said Thursday.
“How are you guys supposed to plan for the future if you don’t know what you’ve got right now?” Amy Sharma, executive director of Science for Georgia, told members of a House special committee Speaker Jon Burns created early this year to formulate policies for handling the growing demand for energy and water power-dependent industries including date centers are putting on the state’s resources.
Sharma said the lack of availability of reliable data is forcing “best guesses” on the impacts of the growing number of data centers springing up across Georgia.
According to Science for Georgia’s estimates, there are currently 97 data centers in the Peach State with another 19 announced but yet to be built. Those facilities are using 14,000 megawatts of electrical generating capacity, enough to power 6.3 million homes, and drinking up 27 billion gallons of water each year, enough to serve 560,000 people.
Sharma said Georgia is among the leading states for data centers because it boasts cheap land and cheap water as well as extensive broadband capability. Data centers have become a valuable source of property tax revenue in the areas where they locate.
But unlike manufacturing plants, they are not great job creators, Sharma said.
“They employ less than your average McDonald’s,” she said.
Also on the down side, huge warehouse-size data centers take up a lot of land, added Jennette Gayer, director of Atlanta-based Environment Georgia. The 85 million square feet data centers currently occupy would take up about 1,500 football fields, she said.
Gayer said data centers also are affecting air quality across the state, particularly in metro Atlanta, Augusta, Valdosta, and Northwest Georgia near Chattanooga, Tenn.
Sharma said the tax incentives big tech companies are getting as an enticement to build data centers in Georgia are costing $300 million a year in lost tax revenue.
“We need data centers, and we need AI (artificial intelligence),” she said. “[But] are we willing to incentivize them the same way we would a Hyundai plant?”
Sharma said a major uncertainty hanging over the industry is whether the growth of data centers will continue unabated or whether the current trend of rapid expansion is a bubble that could burst. She said there are already signs of a pause.
“Some of this growth is very speculative,” Sharma said. “They’re not saying they’re quitting. But they’re saying they’re not sure what they’re going to do.”
Rep. Brad Thomas, R-Holly Springs, the special committee’s chairman, said his goals for the panel’s work are long term.
“The purpose of this committee is what do the next 20 years look like,” he said. “A forward-thinking approach really can set up the next generation for success.”
The committee is scheduled to hold several hearings across the state this summer, with separate subcommittees focusing on energy use and water usage.