What Are Data Centers, and Why Is Everyone Talking About Them?

When Mayor Mike Parkinson stood before the City Council last Tuesday, he had an unusual message: slow down, pay attention, and don't believe everything you read on Facebook.

The topic was data centers - those massive computing facilities you may have heard about but probably couldn't define if someone put you on the spot. The mayor wanted to address growing speculation on social media about whether one might be coming to Granite City.

His message was clear: there's no offer on the table, no negotiations underway, nothing concrete to debate. But the city is getting its house in order anyway, reviewing zoning ordinances and drafting protections - just in case.

It was a smart move. Because across Illinois and around the country, communities are scrambling to understand what data centers actually mean for the places that host them. Some are welcoming them with open arms and generous tax breaks. Others are fighting them with petitions and protests.

Before Granite City faces that choice - if we ever do - we should probably understand what we're talking about.

Strip away the tech jargon, and a data center is essentially a warehouse for computers.

Not the kind of computer sitting on your desk. We're talking about thousands of specialized machines called servers, lined up in row after row of metal racks, all working together to store and process the digital information that powers modern life.

When you stream a movie on Netflix, that video is stored on servers in a data center somewhere. When you check your email, those messages live on servers. When you ask your phone for directions, when you shop online, when you video-call your grandkids - all of it runs through data centers.

The "cloud" that tech companies talk about isn't floating in the sky. It's humming away in windowless buildings, often in places most people have never heard of.

Data centers aren't new. They've existed in various forms since the early days of computing. But the last few years have seen an explosion of construction that's unlike anything the industry has experienced.

Three factors are driving the boom:

The rise of artificial intelligence. Training and running AI systems like ChatGPT requires enormous computing power. A single AI model can require thousands of specialized chips working around the clock. Tech companies are racing to build facilities capable of handling these demands.

The growth of cloud computing. More businesses are moving their operations online, renting computing power from companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft rather than maintaining their own servers. That means those tech giants need more data centers to serve their customers.

National security concerns. The federal government wants American companies building AI infrastructure on American soil, not overseas where adversaries might access it. This has created pressure - and incentives - to build domestically.

The result: data center construction in the United States is expected to reach $25 billion annually, with thousands of new facilities planned or under construction. The number of data centers nationwide more than doubled between 2018 and 2021, and has doubled again since then.

Here's where it gets interesting for communities considering whether to host one. Data centers have three enormous appetites: electricity, water, and land.

Electricity: A single large data center can consume as much power as a small city - the equivalent of 800,000 homes or more. All those servers running constantly, all that data being processed, requires a staggering amount of energy. U.S. data centers consumed about 4.4% of all electricity nationwide in 2023. By 2030, that could climb to 12%.

Water: Those servers generate tremendous heat, and that heat has to go somewhere. Most data centers use water-based cooling systems that can consume millions of gallons per day. A single large facility might use 3 to 5 million gallons daily - enough to supply thousands of households.

Land: The facilities themselves can cover hundreds of thousands of square feet, with some campuses sprawling across dozens or even hundreds of acres. They're typically low-slung buildings, one or two stories, but they spread wide.

This combination of demands is why data centers tend to locate where land is cheap, electricity is available, and water is accessible. It's also why they're increasingly showing up in places that have never hosted major tech infrastructure - places that may not be prepared for what comes with it.

When data center developers come calling, they typically bring a compelling pitch:

Jobs. Construction will employ hundreds or thousands of workers for a year or more. Once operational, the facility will need technicians, security staff, and maintenance workers.

Tax revenue. A billion-dollar facility means property taxes, potentially millions of dollars annually flowing into local coffers for schools, roads, and services.

Economic development. Being part of the digital economy. Attracting other businesses. Putting your community on the map.

Infrastructure investment. Upgraded power lines, improved roads, better connectivity that benefits everyone.

It's an appealing package, especially for communities that have seen traditional industries decline. When a tech giant offers to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in your backyard, it's hard not to get excited.

But as we'll explore in the articles that follow, the reality is often more complicated than the pitch. The jobs question, in particular, deserves close scrutiny - especially for a community like Granite City that knows what real industrial employment looks like.

You might be wondering why we're devoting a series of articles to something that may never happen here.

Fair question. Here's why:

First, it's not as hypothetical as it might seem. Madison County Board Chairman Chris Slusser recently toured a Google data center in Nebraska as part of a regional economic development delegation. Data center developers have been "looking around" the Metro East, as Mayor Parkinson noted. Whether or not Granite City becomes a target, the issue is live in our region.

Second, even if no data center ever locates within city limits, the regional impacts could affect us anyway. Data centers strain electrical grids and can drive up utility rates across entire service territories. Understanding how that works helps us understand our own electric bills.

Third - and most importantly - Granite City has a history of being promised economic windfalls that didn't quite deliver as advertised. We've heard the pitches before. We've seen what happens when communities don't ask the hard questions until it's too late.

Mayor Parkinson invoked Air Products as a cautionary tale - the facility whose pressure valves create noise around the clock because protections weren't in place before it was built. Once something is built on properly zoned land, you live with the consequences.

The time to understand data centers is now, before anyone shows up with an offer. The time to ask questions is before negotiations begin, not after.

Over the next few weeks, we'll dig deeper into the questions every Granite City resident should be able to answer:

Part 2: The Jobs Question. Data centers are pitched as job creators, but how do they compare to the industries that actually built this community? We'll look at the research on data center employment and what it means for working families.

Part 3: Follow the Money. Electric bills, tax breaks, and who really pays. We'll explain how electricity costs work, what MISO and PJM mean for your utility rates, and how data center tax incentives actually function.

Part 4: What's Happening Elsewhere. Granite City isn't the first community to wrestle with these questions. We'll look at what's happening in Naperville, Sangamon County, and other Illinois communities right now.

Part 5: Questions Worth Asking. If a data center proposal ever does come to Granite City, what should residents demand to know? We'll pull together everything we've learned into a citizen's guide for public meetings.

I'll be honest: when the Mayor addressed the council last Tuesday, and when an Alderman friend asked for my thoughts on the matter the other night, I realized I didn't know nearly enough about data centers to have an informed opinion. I suspect many of you are in the same position.

So this series is an exercise in learning together. I'm not here to tell you data centers are good or bad. I'm here to understand what they actually are, what they actually deliver, and what questions we should be asking.

Granite City has been through enough broken promises to approach any economic development pitch with healthy skepticism. But skepticism isn't the same as knee-jerk opposition. The goal is informed engagement - showing up to those public meetings the Mayor mentioned with enough knowledge to ask the right questions.

That starts with understanding the basics. Now that we've covered those, we can dig into the details that actually matter for working families.

Up tomorrow: the jobs question.

This is the first article in a five-part series on data centers and what they could mean for Granite City. Next: "The Jobs Question: How Data Centers Compare to the Industries That Built Granite City."

Have a story tip or want to get involved? Contact me at [email protected].

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