Can AI Data Centers and Small-Town America Coexist?

The explosive growth in artificial intelligence (AI) has put Big Tech companies on a collision course with many rural communities that do not want massive data centers in their backyard. But while the speeding train of AI likely can’t be stopped, policymakers and AI executives have a responsibility to balance the interests of AI companies and everyday Americans – particularly when it comes to ensuring both have affordable, reliable energy.

Throughout the country, Big Tech companies are building or planning to construct more than 1,000 data centers to house all the servers needed to power the massive growth in AI. One researcher told The Epoch Times that “there are 1,827 active data centers in the United States, with another 1,726 announced and 419 currently under construction.”

Each of these centers needs land, water, and electricity to operate. Electricity prices have already risen faster than inflation since 2021, and are projected to increase more in the years ahead. Some of this increase is due to higher demand on utility companies from AI centers, according to BlockClub Chicago.

It should come as no surprise, then, that plans to build more data centers have run headlong into some opposition. In many cases, local citizens are speaking out against what they view as an encroachment in their communities, partially based on concerns about electric bills, competition for scarce water resources, and changes to the character of a community when massive warehouses are built where farmland or forests once stood.

These battles have serious political consequences as well. For example, voters kicked out officials in Warrenton, Virginia, who supported a new Amazon data center in 2024, according to Data Center Watch. That website also reported that “In Cascade Locks, Oregon, voters recalled two Port Authority officials in June 2023 for supporting a $100 million data center project from Roadhouse Digital… Following the recall election, the new board canceled the data center project in July 2023.” This spring, residents of Valparaiso, Indiana, also opposed even the possibility of a data center moving into their city, leading the developer to pull the idea.

But despite these victories for a few communities, the AI genie likely can’t be put back in the bottle – the industry is projected to quintuple in value in the next five years alone, according to one estimate. AI is now being used not just in sophisticated financial modeling and healthcare systems, but also by millions of Americans who use ChatGPT, Grok, or other platforms to look up recipes, help with homework, or organize their daily lives. AI is already an integral part of the U.S. economy.

But despite some tension, there is still hope that AI companies can coexist with the communities they build in – if they take some steps to listen to community members and invest in them.

The biggest challenge remains accommodating AI data centers’ massive appetite for electricity. According to NPR, “a typical AI data center uses as much electricity as 100,000 households, and the largest under development will consume 20 times more.” Multiplied out over thousands of data centers, that’s the equivalent of adding tens of millions of homes to the grid in just a few years.

While politicians continue to argue about the best way to meet this demand, what’s not up for debate is the looming energy crisis facing the country if no action is taken.

President Donald Trump has embraced this challenge head-on, promising on the campaign trail last year to “make America the dominant energy producer in the world by far.” Trump has advocated for an “all of the above” approach to energy that includes renewable projects as well as increasing production of oil and gas, restarting coal power plants, and reinvesting in nuclear. Recent advancements in small modular reactor technology and fusion breakthroughs have made nuclear energy particularly promising. This approach has the dual benefit of improving the reliability of the grid while also creating high-paying jobs.

In Indiana, the projected growth in AI energy use is expected to be larger than the output from coal plants which are slated to close. But this creates an opportunity, according to a white paper by Shashank Chandrakumara.

“Indiana can address this challenge by requiring data center companies to directly fund the redevelopment of coal plants that are nearing retirement or closure,” Chandrakumara wrote for the Indiana Policy Review. “By doing so, these companies can upgrade existing facilities to generate additional power and build new data centers near these sites.”

There is a public relations benefit to this as well, Chandrakumara predicts – the investments will “minimize community backlash.” And of course, investing in coal plants and keeping them open will create, or at least sustain, jobs in the local community. Residents may also be more inclined to live with a data center nearby if it means more job opportunities at a new nearby power plant.

He argues that this strategy, called “colocation,” can also address other concerns residents have about noise, pollution, and water usage by data centers. Since the companies are working at sites that have historically operated as industrial facilities, residents are familiar with how to handle some of these challenges – much like how one factory taking over another factory does not materially change the living situation for anyone in that community.

Nuclear energy advocates also believe that nuclear can meet the country’s increasing electricity demand. A blog post from Georgia Tech earlier this year argues that “nuclear power, with its high energy density and continuous operation, is well-suited to provide the steady base load of electricity required” for data centers.

Furthermore, AI can actually help mitigate some of the risks normally associated with nuclear power by making detection of potential problems easier, according to Erickson.

This is the model being used by Microsoft, which is working with a local energy company in Pennsylvania to reopen Three Mile Island, a nuclear facility in the Keystone State. The reopening of the plant, which closed in 2019 because of financial problems, is intended “to power the tech giant’s AI data centers” while creating jobs and billions of dollars in economic value, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

The situation is a win-win – Microsoft gets a steady supply of energy and hundreds of local residents will get jobs, along with potentially cheaper electricity, from the new deal.

The path forward for Big Tech companies and Americans who share a community with a data center does not have to be contentious. Instead of trampling over small towns and everyday people, Big Tech companies can win over residents by creating jobs and making investments themselves in the energy infrastructure. It is not a question of if new data centers will open up – but how they will do so in a way that promotes prosperity for all.

Matt Lamb is a contributor for AMAC Newsline and an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.