BY: BARBARE AKHALKATSI
Reacting to the rapid expansion of data centers, speakers during Climate Week called for public disclosure of all AI project information and their environmental effects. They encouraged people to start holding state officials accountable for withholding information from the public.
On Sept. 21, Pratt Institute hosted a public workshop “Big Problems vs Bigger Solutions: Data Centers & The Clean Energy Transition,” where presenters discussed the energy and water demands of AI data centers.
“We’re here today to talk about energy, which as an issue is really scary,” said Summer Sandoval, one of the speakers that opened the workshop.
Luis Gonzalez, a resource mobilizer with 10 years of experience, stressed the importance of people being informed about AI data projects. According to him, the public isn’t given enough information about the distribution of energy and resources for AI, as well as the finances that go into it. “They’re forcing people to dehouse, while private forces are buying lands all over the world to build AI data centers,” said Gonzalez.
As an example of financial challenge, Gonzalez discussed 18 data center projects started in Massachusetts, where the state paused new applications for a data center tax exemption while concerns rise about electricity costs and environmental effects, “Who’s paying for this? How is this going to affect our economy?”
Gonzalez also talked about another major issue – pollution. He discussed Boxtown, a historically Black town near xAI’s South Memphis data center, where residents have been concerned about pollution from methane turbines used to power the facility.“AI will not solve climate crisis. If anything, it will contribute to climate crisis,” he said.
Other speakers explored possible solutions for the growing issues. Sarah Z. Salem, director of environmental justice and community investment at Flatiron Energy, discussed battery storage and its usage. As a solution, she suggested that large batteries can store electricity when demand is lower and deliver it when demand rises.
The last presenter, Zoe Voss Lee, founding principal of the urban planning practice Grounded, took another approach: a more distributed power grid of solar panels and batteries, that would reduce power demand through devices in homes and buildings.
As the presentations concluded, some questions remain unanswered – who distributes the power and who bears the consequences of unequal distribution?