Make Me Smart What happens when a data center moves to town?
Jul 22, 2025
Landon Marston, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Virginia Tech, dives into the complex world of data centers. He discusses how these facilities, vital for tech advancements, demand immense energy and water, straining local resources. Marston emphasizes the importance of community involvement in decision-making regarding their development. The conversation also touches on innovative sustainability solutions and the economic challenges faced by nearby communities. Additionally, insights on Medicaid cuts and the concept of 'hundred-year floods' add depth to the discussion.
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What is a Data Center?
- Data centers are massive buildings housing powerful servers that store and process our digital data.
- Their scale has evolved from small closets to large, campus-sized hyperscale data centers with huge resource demands.
Data Centers' Huge Energy Use
- Data centers consume about 4.4% of the US’s electricity, with growth expected to rise to 6.7-12% by 2028.
- Northern Virginia alone uses a quarter of the state’s energy for data centers due to ideal conditions like cheap power and fiber optics.
Water Use and Impact of Data Centers
- Data centers use water directly for cooling and indirectly through electricity production.
- While national water use is small, water use can be significant locally, impacting public utilities.
