This is the first in a multi-part series separating fact from misinformation in the national debate over data centers. Read the eBook, The Truth About Data Centers, for a deeper look. 

Data centers have spent decades as invisible infrastructure, powering nearly everything we do online while attracting almost no public attention.  

That era is over. Today data centers are the subject of city council hearings, legislative battles, and front-page headlines. Maine just passed what is expected to become the nation’s first statewide moratorium on large data center construction. Denver enacted its own ban earlier this year. At least 12 other states have bills in active consideration, and more than 100 cities and counties across the country have already taken similar action. 

The questions driving that reaction are legitimate, and they deserve straight answers. This series — and our engagement with the communities where we operate — is our attempt to provide them. 

The Infrastructure You Use Every Day 

Data centers are not a new invention. The concept of centralized computing infrastructure predates the commercial internet. Yet for most people, their relevance became personal much later: when online banking went mainstream in the mid-2000s, when smartphones became universal around 2010, and when the world went remote practically overnight in 2020. Every time you stream a show, check the weather, use GPS to navigate, or place a call to 911, that interaction runs through a data center.

What is new is the scale. AI has fundamentally accelerated demand for this infrastructure, and that acceleration is real and worth taking seriously: 

• Generative AI reached 53% population adoption within three years, faster than either the personal computer or the internet. 

• Firm-level AI adoption more than doubled in two years, rising from 8.7% of businesses in 2023 to more than 20% in 2025. 

• Work-related generative AI adoption among the U.S. workforce grew by 31% in a single year. 

• Worker access to AI rose by 50% in 2025. 

That level of growth has implications for the power grids, water supplies, and the communities where this infrastructure gets built. The concerns being raised are not imaginary, and they deserve a serious look at the facts behind them. 

Communities deserve better than headlines built on incomplete information. DataBank’s eBook, The Truth About Data Centers, covers the facts behind the debate in full. Download your copy now. 

Separating Fact from Fear

Many of the specific claims driving the current backlash are incomplete, outdated, or simply wrong. When policy gets made on inaccurate information, communities end up with worse outcomes than they would have gotten from a more honest conversation. 

A few examples worth examining: 

• Electricity rate increases in Maine and elsewhere have root causes — natural gas volatility, aging infrastructure, inflation, and decades of deferred grid investment — that predate the current wave of data center construction.  

• Water consumption figures cited in community meetings often reflect older evaporative cooling systems that the industry has largely discontinued. Modern closed-loop cooling technology uses a fraction of that water, and the most advanced facilities operate with near-zero ongoing consumption. 

• Generator testing, the activity that draws the most neighborhood complaints, typically amounts to about 30 minutes per month.  

• Data centers are frequently characterized as taking more from communities than they give back. The reality — in tax revenue, local jobs, and positive community investments — tells a more complete story. 

We’ll cover each of these topics in more detail in the next articles in this series.   

A Better Debate

Our goal is not to defend the data center industry. It is to give communities, policymakers, and anyone following this debate the clearest possible picture of what these facilities are, what they require, and what they contribute. After all, we live and work in the communities where we operate. These issues affect us and our families as well. 

There is a better conversation to be had about data centers than the one currently taking place. We would like to start having it.

The facts behind each of these topics are covered in full in DataBank’s eBook, The Truth About Data Centers. Download it now.  

Stay current on the trends and developments shaping the data center industry. Visit DataBank Digest for analysis, insights, and the latest news from the world of colocation and digital infrastructure.