Clean Power Happy Hour Recap: Data Center Edition
We’re so grateful to everyone who braved the cold on Wednesday to join us for our Clean Power Happy Hour. Over 60 people attended for an insightful evening with Representative Donna Mears and Senator Löki Gale Tobin, focusing on how policy can best serve our communities if data centers come to our Alaska.
If you weren’t able to attend, we have a recording of the conversation on our YouTube channel.
The evening began with an overview of what data centers are and why they’re becoming more common. Data centers are large facilities (sometimes spanning the size of many football fields) filled with computer servers and data storage systems that run continuously to support digital services. The rapid growth of artificial intelligence has dramatically increased demand for these facilities over the last few years.
Data centers can look very different depending on their type and size and have different energy demands. A smaller data center may house around 500 servers, while a hyperscale data center typically contains 4,000-5,000 servers. At this scale, a single facility can consume as much electricity as roughly 100,000 households, creating intense demands on local energy systems.
Below: From left to right, The Alaska Center’s Political Director Alex Petkanas, Senator Löki Gale Tobin and Representative Donna Mears.
The conversation then turned to environmental and community impacts. If powered by natural gas, data centers could increase greenhouse gas pollution and accelerate the eventual depletion of Cook Inlet’s LNG supply. They also produce constant noise that can negatively impact the health of nearby communities and wildlife, require hundreds of thousands of gallons of water each day for cooling, and generate large amounts of electronic waste due to frequent equipment replacement. Knowing all this, speakers emphasized the importance of strong environmental protections and community consultation to mitigate impacts if data centers are developed in Alaska.
Below: We had a full house at the Clean Power Happy Hour!
Representative Mears shared that she believes that data centers, with the right protections, could offer some benefits to Alaskans. In an ideal situation, new energy demand from a data center could help balance a reduced load on the Railbelt or support new clean energy generation. Community benefit agreements and consumer protections are essential tools to help ensure consumers don’t end up with higher energy bills or less reliable power.
Senator Tobin discussed impacts to water used for cooling data centers, and disparate impacts of pollution and noise in the lower 48. If projects are developed, she emphasized that they should offer meaningful benefits. She highlighted the small-scale hydro-powered data center in Cordova as a strategic project that is helping increase access to digital information.
“It’s really up to us to figure out how we want this technology, if we want this technology in our communities, and then to really negotiate together to make sure that it’s a mutually beneficial situation and dynamic,” Tobin said.
Left: A community member asks a question to the panel about what protections from large data center the state could have.
To gain the maximum benefit from any data center development in our state, it is essential that Alaskan voices are heard. This year, there will be many more opportunities for community conversations, public comments, and actions to ensure that Alaskans get a true public benefit from any development in our state. Stay tuned by following our blog and signing up to get involved as a volunteer during legislative session.
Again, thank you to all who came to our Clean Power Happy Hour. If you couldn’t make this event, here is the link to our recording.
For a Sustainable Future,
The Alaska Center
