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Member Khanna urges committee to study data center impacts, cites energy and water risks
Summary
At the July 27 Green Worcester meeting, member Ted Khanna briefed the committee on local and national data center trends, energy and water impacts, and recommended reviewing the state's sustainability framework for data centers; the committee agreed to a September follow-up presentation.
Member Ted Khanna presented a 10-minute briefing describing different types of data centers, local concentrations and environmental impacts, and urged the committee to be proactive in addressing potential local proposals.
Khanna said there are on-site edge, colocation and hyperscale facilities and that AI demand is increasing the size and energy intensity of new centers. "AI data centers use graphics chips, which use 2 to 4 times more energy," he said, and noted global data-center electricity consumption in the hundreds of billions of kilowatt-hours with U.S. share and state clustering. He added that data-center operators are often opaque about electricity and cooling requirements and that grid upgrades could raise rates for other ratepayers.
Committee members pressed for practical next steps. Evelyn Hurwitz asked what actions Khanna recommended; he said "it's better to be proactive than reactive" and suggested the committee review and consider publicly supporting the state's new framework for sustainable data centers. Steven McCauley said he was surprised to learn of local data-center locations and that the presentation changed his view about where centers locate.
The committee voted to schedule a follow-up presentation from Khanna at the September meeting to dig deeper into the state framework and possible committee positions. "I would like to keep that subject alive," Khanna said when moving the motion; the motion passed on roll call.
