If Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is serious about addressing global warming, one problem area he might want to focus on is the growing demand for electricity — especially in Northern Virginia. It turns out that one of NoVa’s hottest industry segments right now is data centers. Kendra Marr with the Washington Post ran a story Monday about the data-center boom. Although she had no estimate of the number of data centers coming on line, I’ve heard the figure for NoVa could be as high as 20 to 25 in the near future.
From an economic development perspective, data centers are wonderful: They cost tens of millions of dollars to build and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in municipal taxes. Also, they require relatively few employees to operate, which means they don’t strain the capacity of municipal governments to provide roads, infrastructure and public services.
From an environmental perspective, data centers are bad news: They’re energy hogs. Those endless racks of computers consume electricity and give off a lot of heat, which must be offset by air conditioning that guzzles even more electricity. Indeed, the proliferation of data centers is a driving force behind the surge in NoVa electric consumption and Dominion’s warnings that the region could experience brownouts as early as 2011. As big consumers of electricity, data centers acount for an increasing share of Dominion’s greenhouse gas emissions.
What’s the solution? Green IT. Technology companies see great potential to conserve energy, save money and cut greenhouse gas emissions in one swoop. This movement, which started in California, is spreading east. We may be hearing more from Virginia companies in the not-too-distant future. It’s a trend that Gov. Kaine certainly will want to encourage.