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People living in one southern community are joining the growing list of Americans saying no to a proposed data center near their homes.
Tarboro, North Carolina, residents are urging their town council to reject a proposal for a 50-acre, 300-megawatt Energy Storage Solutions LLC site projected to bring 500 jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue to the town.
“This project poses significant risks that outweigh any potential benefits, not only to those living nearby but to the entire town,” Cynthia Coker wrote in a statement attached to a Change.org petition she created. “The serene environment, character, and community cohesion we cherish in Tarboro could be dramatically altered by the presence of such a massive facility.”
Coker went on to say, “Data centers are notorious for consuming enormous amounts of electricity and water, leading to increased utility rates and depletion of local resources.”
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LEDs light up in a server rack in a data center in Hessen, Frankfurt on Jan. 23, 2023. (Sebastian Gollnow/picture alliance / Getty Images)
Energy Storage Solutions LLC president Dan Shaffer told local WRAL that he expects the data center will cost $6.4 billion over the three to five years it takes to build.
“We’re very conscious of the environment ourselves, having been solar developers,” Shaffer told the station, adding that the center will generate its own energy and use 500,000 gallons of water a day.
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In an aerial view, an Amazon Web Services data center is shown situated near single-family homes on July 17, 2024, in Stone Ridge, Virginia. (Nathan Howard / Getty Images)
Shaffer said data centers like this are a growing necessity in the modern age of computing.
“Every time someone takes a picture with their phone, or someone’s downloading things on the internet, you have to have data centers all over the country to support this,” he said. “With the addition of AI … the demand is going to grow and grow.”
Rows of servers fill Data Hall B at the Facebook’s Fort Worth Data Center in Texas. (Paul Moseley/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service / Getty Images)
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Neither Coker nor any of the Edgecomb County Board members responded to FOX Business inquiries.
