While the world regulates data centers··· South Korea promises power and water supplies - 경향신문

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On the 27th of last month (local time) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, citizens participate in a street protest opposing the installation of AI data centers. AP Yonhap News

In South Korea, the state is taking the lead in supporting the construction of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers through the ‘Three Mega Projects’ and other initiatives, but countries around the world are moving to restrict data center construction or to introduce new regulations. In Australia and elsewhere, rules are also being adopted that require data center operators to secure their own power sources and to bear the costs of connecting to the grid.

According to foreign media on the 21st, on the 14th (local time) the State of New York became the first among the 50 states to suspend state environmental permits for new large data centers for one year. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said, “The scale and pace of data center development are placing an unprecedented burden on power and water resources and risk driving up electricity bills for New Yorkers”.

At the state level New York is the first, but earlier Monterey Park, California, and Seattle, Washington, also implemented measures banning new data center construction either permanently·temporarily. There have been even more cases in which individual data center plans were blocked at the city council stage.

On the 18th (local time) in Imperial, California, nationwide protests were held against the expansion of AI data centers. A demonstrator waves a placard reading ‘Power to people, not servers’. AFP Yonhap News

In the United States, opposition to data centers is intensifying across the political spectrum. On the 18th, the group ‘Humans First’, led by Amy Kremer, a former participant in the Republican Tea Party movement, held coordinated protests in 42 states opposing the construction of data centers. The polling firm ‘Gallup’ reported in May that seven out of ten Americans oppose building an AI data center in the area where they live. This is higher than the share who oppose building a nuclear power plant where they live (53%).

Citizens oppose the construction of data centers for multiple reasons including power and water shortages, ecological damage, noise, and higher electricity bills. Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity, and the cooling required to run servers without overheating requires large volumes of water. Local residents expect that data centers will damage local ecosystems and deplete resources while creating little employment. For the same reasons, debates opposing data centers are spreading in Canada, Mexico, Ireland, and elsewhere.

In Australia, rules have been prepared that demand environmental responsibility from the data center industry. On the 15th, the Australian government announced that it would establish an ‘Australian AI Standard’ to regulate electricity, water, and other resources used by AI data centers. To prevent additional power demand from translating into higher electricity bills, the rules would require operators to produce more electricity from renewable sources than their data centers consume, to minimize water use while sharing the costs of related infrastructure, and to consult with residents when acquiring sites.

On the 18th, the cooling system on the roof of the Digital Realty data center in Oakland, California, was operating. Reuters Yonhap News

According to the report ‘The Environmental Cost of Artificial Intelligence’ published by the United Nations University on the 3rd of last month, data centers worldwide are estimated to have consumed 448TWh (terawatt-hours) of electricity last year. If treated as a single country, that would make them the 11th largest electricity consumer globally. The researchers project that by 2030 annual electricity consumption by data centers worldwide will exceed 945TWh.

The International Energy Agency expects fossil-fuel power generation to increase as explosive growth in electricity demand continues. Even if renewables remain central, liquefied natural gas (LNG), nuclear power, and small modular reactors (SMRs) are also expected to be used to supply electricity to data centers.

The water burden from data centers is also large. The United Nations University report estimates that last year data centers worldwide used 4.5 trillion ℓ of water associated with electricity consumption alone. This too is expected to surge to 9.3 trillion ℓ by 2030. That volume could meet the minimum annual household water needs of the entire 1.3 billion population of Sub-Saharan Africa.

The researchers further noted that the direct water needed by data centers for server cooling can also strain local supplies. The report stated, “Even if some cooling water is returned to the environment, the magnitude and timing of large withdrawals can place significant stress on aquifers and surface water systems”, and added, “The problem can be especially severe in arid regions or areas experiencing groundwater depletion”.

On the 29th of last month at the Blue House, Minister Kim Sung-hwan of the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment presents plans for power and water supplies to AI data centers during the ‘Republic of Korea Great Leap Three Mega Projects National Briefing’. Blue House Press Photographers

Amid growing global concern about the environmental impact of data centers, on the 29th of last month the South Korean government announced it would pursue the ‘Three Mega Projects’ centered on semiconductors, physical AI, and AI data centers. In partnership with SK, GS, Naver, and others, the plan is to build 8.4GW of AI data center capacity across the country by 2029 and to expand SK data centers by 10GW by 2035, for a total of 18.4GW.

The government stated that, for data centers, it would “seek stable power supply by harmoniously using renewables, nuclear power, and some fossil-fuel generation sources”, and that, as one option in tariff reforms to support the industry, it would introduce an ‘AI data center-only tariff’. This is interpreted to mean the government will step in to supply power for industrial development and will even adjust the tariff system so that data centers can use electricity at lower cost. This runs counter to overseas trends that require data center operators to secure their own power sources, bear grid connection costs, and minimize water use.

Mir Martin, program manager for Geospatial, Climate, and Infrastructure Analytics at the United Nations University, said, “Unless the ‘asymmetry’ between the regions that host data centers and the regions that use AI is corrected, we will repeat the old pattern in which some regions bear the costs while others take the benefits”. The United Nations University report noted that expansion of data centers must be accompanied by transparent measures to reduce environmental burdens and by mechanisms to share benefits with local communities.