The rise of artificial intelligence and cloud computing is leading to a jump in data center construction throughout Maryland and the rest of the U.S.

The state is home to a few dozen data centers but not the hyper-scale models, which have drawn fierce opposition for their size, noise and environmental concerns.

Jean Hardy, assistant professor of media and information at Michigan State University, said data centers bring up three main issues: water, power and land use, along with discussion about whether there might be upsides for communities.

"That would include what are community benefits going to be? What are economic benefits going to be?" Hardy outlined. "A lot of communities were not proactively thinking, ‘What are data centers? Could they come to our communities?’ They didn’t have anything in place to understand how data centers would fit into their communities from a planning and zoning perspective."

A report by the climate news provider Heatmap found a sharp rise in canceled data center projects over the last year, driven largely by community opposition. Three counties in Maryland have introduced or passed legislation to pump the brakes on data center developments, including Baltimore, Prince George's and Montgomery counties.

Hardy argued data centers are an important piece of the digital age, and some communities have made agreements to pump money into local developments, schools and public services. But he pointed out job creation from data centers is often limited, and the positions do not necessarily go to local residents.

"Data centers do provide a lot of construction jobs, so that can be a benefit," Hardy noted. "But data center construction jobs are temporary, right? And we know that for these large-scale development projects, the types of construction companies that do these things usually aren’t local."

Source: Public News Service