West Virginia Watch
Summary
Artificial intelligence data centers are arriving faster in Appalachia than the policies to manage them. In March, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that Google would build an AI data center in Putnam County. At the same time, public skepticism is rising, with four in 10 Americans saying that data centers are mostly bad for the environment and home energy costs.
This tension frames a real issue. As a March Brookings report on AI data centers in rural communities put it, “The central question is not whether data centers are ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ but how benefits and risks get allocated and what forms of governance, local authority and transparency can help leaders maximize local benefits while protecting community interests.”
As long as these neighboring facilities are within a few miles of the AI data center, the otherwise wasted heat can be used to heat community buildings like police and fire stations, greenhouses to grow food for food-insecure populations, water/wastewater infrastructure, and local manufacturing, food processing and biotech companies.
These systems have been used in communities for decades. Pittsburgh’s PNC Park and Allegheny General Hospital, for example, have been part of this type of district heating system, like this, for over 50 years.
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