WASHINGTON, July 22 — The hum of cooling fans and the blink of server lights define the landscape of modern computing, but the physical infrastructure that powers the digital world is increasingly fueling a real-world confrontation. Data centers—the massive facilities that store, manage, and train artificial intelligence—are facing a wave of local opposition that has already blocked or delayed billions of dollars in new projects, a new tracking report shows. These facilities trace their origins to the 1940s, when the U.S. military’s ENIAC computer filled a room.
Today, the term covers everything from on-premises enterprise data centers to the sprawling cloud and hyperscale operations run by Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Other types include managed service, colocation, and edge facilities.
By 2023, hyperscale and colocation centers together housed 74% of all computer servers in the United States, according to a 2024 report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
A growing hunger for power and water
That concentration of computing muscle comes with enormous appetites. The International Energy Agency estimated that data centers consumed 415 terawatt hours of electricity in 2024—about 1.5% of global electricity use—and that consumption has been growing 12% annually over the past five years. Projections show it doubling to 945 TWh by 2030, representing 15% annual growth.
In the United States, data center power demand is expected to account for almost half of total electricity demand growth through the end of the decade. The scale is hard to grasp: a single data center can consume up to 2 megawatt hours—roughly the electricity use of a small town—according to Terry Nguyen and Ben Green of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition.
That demand pushes up electricity costs for nearby residents and businesses. Water use is equally staggering. The academic journal Npj Clean Water estimated that in 2021, data centers worldwide consumed 1.7 billion liters of water per day.
Of that, 57% came from potable supplies—enough to strain local water systems. Yet fewer than one-third of operators even measure their water consumption.
Opposition on the rise
Those environmental and cost pressures have sparked resistance across Europe, the United States, and South America. The first report from Data Center Watch, covering May 2024 through March 2025, found that local opposition had blocked or delayed $64 billion worth of data center projects globally. Six projects were entirely blocked; ten were delayed.
In many communities, residents describe the same scene: construction crews arriving with little warning, utility bills creeping up, and water tables dropping. By nightfall, public meetings grow tense as people question whether the promise of digital jobs outweighs the strain on local infrastructure.
The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 defines a data center as a facility primarily containing electronic equipment to process, store, and transmit digital information, including standalone structures or spaces within larger buildings that require environmental control. That legal definition has done little to ease the anxieties of communities suddenly faced with a new neighbor that demands as much power as a town and as much water as a small city.
What to watch next
With electricity demand rising and water resources tightening, the battle over where and how data centers are built is only likely to intensify. The Data Center Watch report suggests that the $64 billion in blocked or delayed projects may be just the beginning. Environmental justice advocates, utility regulators, and local governments are all now asking the same question: how much growth can the grid—and the community—absorb?
Sources
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