Scientists have been sounding the alarm on just how bad AI, and data centers, are for the environment. And now, researchers have proof they are also making nearby neighborhoods 4 degrees warmer, according to a new study from Arizona State University.
The findings, which were published on Monday in the Journal of Engineering for Sustainable Buildings and Cities, looked at how much heat two Arizona data centers were giving off in the Phoenix area—a hotspot for data center growth in the U.S.
Researchers looked at a 36-megawatt faculty in Mesa, and a larger 169-megawatt data center campus in nearby Chandler, and found not only were air temperatures warmers in downwind neighborhoods, but that heat extended a third of a mile out from the data centers.
“As we do more measurements under different kinds of atmospheric conditions, I think we’re going to see more significant impacts around data centers,” study author and director of Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning David Sailor said. “They’re such a concentrated load of electricity consumption and hence heat emissions that we became concerned about the impact that they could have locally, and also in the downwind neighborhoods.”
All that energy is creating so-called heat islands,” making already warm American cities like Phoenix unbearably hot. That’s because data centers produce heat of about 14 to 25 degrees, according to the study, which for some context, is equal to more than the heat emitted by 40,000 U.S. households.
Meanwhile, a previous study published in March, led by U.K. researchers, found data centers were increasing land temperatures by up to 16 degrees, potentially affecting some 340 million people globally.
Environmentalists argue data centers, needed to power artificial intelligence, impact surrounding communities in a number of other ways, too, including raising energy demand and utility bills, draining water supplies, and creating pollution, often in lower income areas which suffer disproportionately—all while Big Tech reaps the benefit.
