The Greensboro City Council has already spent months arguing about whether the city needs to put the brakes on massive new data centers. Now councilmembers are about to get deep into the weeds on exactly what those facilities could mean for Greensboro.
The city has announced a series of public Greensboro City Council work sessions that will examine the water, wastewater, environmental, regulatory and land-use issues surrounding large data centers as Greensboro works its way through a 180-day moratorium on new projects of this type.
The first of the newly announced sessions will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10 and will focus on water and wastewater – two of the biggest issues raised during the increasingly heated public debate over data centers this summer.
Greensboro Water Resources Director Mike Borchers and Rebecca M. Slabaugh, director of water planning for the consulting firm Arcadis, are scheduled to lead that discussion.
Two weeks later, at 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, councilmembers are scheduled to hear about state policies and regulatory frameworks from David Payne, the director of intergovernmental affairs and economic development for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
Then, on Thursday, Oct. 8, the council will hold a second session on state policy and regulatory frameworks featuring Dr. Angel Hsu, principal investigator with Data-Driven Lab, and Dr. Yuetong Zhang, a postdoctoral research associate with the UNC-Chapel Hill Institute for the Environment.
The sessions will be held in the Plaza Level conference room of the Melvin Municipal Office Building at 300 W. Washington St. and will be open to the public both in person and virtually.
There’s plenty for councilmembers to study.
Large data centers can require enormous amounts of electrical power and, depending on their cooling systems, potentially enormous amounts of water.
Other questions that have come up repeatedly in Greensboro include noise, backup generators, transmission infrastructure, effects on neighboring property, environmental impacts and whether the tremendous investment involved produces enough local jobs and other benefits to justify the costs.
On the other side of the argument is the potentially enormous increase to the local tax base that can come with facilities representing hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in investment.
The City Council voted 8-0 on Tuesday, Aug. 18, with one councilmember recusing herself, to establish a 180-day moratorium on data centers that require more than 10 megawatts of electrical power.
The moratorium runs through Sunday, Feb. 14, 2027.
During that time, the city will temporarily stop accepting, processing and approving applications for new data centers, data storage and processing facilities and similar uses above the 10-megawatt threshold.
Existing projects that have already been permitted or are under construction aren’t affected.
The City Council initially considered a 120-day moratorium but added another two months following a lengthy public hearing and heavy public opposition to allowing very large data centers to move forward before the city had adopted more detailed rules governing them.
The whole issue has evolved rapidly.
In July, the City Council voted 5-4 against beginning the process required to impose a moratorium. Less than two weeks later, after councilmembers were inundated with concerns from residents, the council reversed course and voted unanimously to begin that process.
The city held a legislative hearing on the proposed moratorium on Monday, Aug. 17 and adopted the expanded 180-day version the following night.
The new work sessions are meant to give councilmembers time to hear from outside experts, examine what other communities are doing and determine what changes Greensboro should make to its Land Development Ordinance before the moratorium expires.
One of the most basic issues is that data centers aren’t all alike: They range from relatively small facilities storing and processing data to massive hyperscale operations supporting cloud computing and artificial intelligence. The amount of water, power, land and infrastructure required will vary tremendously depending on the size and design of the operation.
That’s also a lesson the Guilford County commissioners are beginning to learn.
As the Rhino Times reported last week, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is planning its own work session on data centers after commissioners attended a major presentation on the subject at the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners Annual Conference in Durham in August.
Guilford County Commissioner Pat Tillman called the data center seminar the highlight of the conference.
Tillman said commissioners heard about many of the same issues Greensboro is now planning to study in detail – water capacity, electrical demand, noise, zoning, tax revenue and the legal issues surrounding moratoriums and development regulations.
One of the messages Tillman said came through clearly was that “not every data center is the same.”
Commissioner Frankie Jones likewise said county officials are still trying to get their arms around the issue and need substantially more information before deciding how Guilford County should handle any future proposals.
No date had been set for the county work session when the commissioners spoke to the Rhino Times last week – though Jones said at that time that he expected it to take place within roughly 30 to 45 days.
The county currently has no data center proposal before it that Tillman is aware of – which gives commissioners an opportunity to establish policies before a major project lands on their doorstep.
Greensboro is learning that lesson the harder way – with the data center issue already generating an unusually large amount of public interest and putting councilmembers under pressure to decide what kinds of projects should be allowed, where they should go and what conditions should be attached.
The Sept. 10 session on water will be particularly important because water consumption has been among the biggest points of contention.
At the county commissioners conference, officials heard examples showing just how dramatically that use can vary: One planned Virginia data center was projected to use as much as 6 million gallons of water per day, while another facility being built there anticipated essentially no ongoing water use because of its closed-loop cooling system.
That kind of variation is one reason both Greensboro and Guilford County officials say they want to get considerably more educated before writing permanent rules.
If the question is will a data center benifit the city or hurt the city you can bet that the democrates on the city council will vote if they think it will hurt their base supporters, they will vote against.
Isn’t that what they are supposed to do?
What would the Digital Brownshirts do without Amazon ❓
Amazon’s largest and most ambitious AI data center campus is Project Rainier, an $11 billion facility spanning 1,200 acres in New Carlisle, Indiana.
It has a 2.2 GW electrical load. One current industry tracker ranks the New Carlisle campus as the largest operational data-center project in the United States, at 2,200 MW.
Any civic or electrical engineers on the board. Computer science? Contractors? Plumbers? Carpenters? Anybody know the cost of lumber?
The Board DOES know how to extort money. Sorry, legal theft.
“On the other side of the argument is the potentially enormous increase to the local tax base that can come with facilities representing hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in investment.” Basically, a data center is an air-conditioned warehouse not readily usable by anyone but another data center, and most of the value is in the rapidly-depreciating processing units and associated equipment. The structured financing costs will likely reduce the local profits (relevant for property taxation of commercial property) and all the net profit will be exempt from corporate income tax by 2030. How is that an “…enormous increase to the local tax base…”?
Council will go whichever way the public wind blows on this….
Shouldn’t be how it works? If the broader community supports the idea they should too? If the broader community rejects the idea, shouldn’t they?
I should have clarified ..council will go with whoever speaks loudest, which is often not the majority
Ah. That makes better sense. Sadly that is often the case.
This is no more than an automatic SNAFU for city council clowns.
A question that needs to be answered is how do data centers benefit the average individual? Data center proponents point to driving investment in renewable energy projects; job creation, which is a lie since data centers employee a handful of people when project is completed because there is no need for employees; tax revenue, which is questionable because the revenue is based on the fast depreciating machines not the value of the real property; NC gives tax exemption for electricity used by data centers. The average Joe’s power bill increases as result of data centers but gets no exemption. Data centers use the same contractors over and over cutting out local contractors. Gather the names of contractors that have constructed data centers.
The only ones who benefit from data centers are the already rich tech oligarchs and government. Why do state governments welcome data centers with incentives? Because the elected representatives are smitten by the big names behind data centers.
Those who are pro data centers claim that the far left are the ones in opposition. Not true.
is a ‘data center’ ‘The
is a ‘data center’ same thing as ‘The Cloud’ – a network of linked computers that organizes & directs the queries ?
A 100 MW data center with closed-loop evaporative cooling uses an estimated 2,400 MWh per day, while the Toyota battery plant uses an estimated 2,400 MWh per day.
A 100 MW data center with closed-loop evaporative cooling requires an estimated 10,000 gallons per day in refill water due to evaporation once the 100,000+/- gallon system is filled. By comparison, the Toyota battery plant uses an estimated 350,000 gallons per day, with an inflow capacity of 4,000,000 gallons per day and an outflow capacity of 1,800,000 gallons per day.
A 100 MW data center will pay +/- $4.7 million in property taxes to Guilford County in year one. They also refresh most equipment on a 5-year cycle, so depreciation friction is small, meaning it is almost pure usable cash to the county/city. There are few employees, so the impact on the city and county infrastructure is small. The Toyota battery plant is in Randolph County and will NEVER pay a dime in property taxes to Guilford County. However, Guilford County will get property taxes from all those employees, but needs to reinvest a lot, if not most, in infrastructure to support them, meaning actual usable cash to the county is small.
The 100 MW data center may have some noise… in fact, it will likely have quite a bit. But will it be any more than a manufacturing plant of equal size running 24 hours a day with trucks coming and going? Doubtful.
The real difference is political: local politicians can’t stand at a ribbon-cutting and crow about thousands of new jobs created. Or, as they usually do, they find a way to capitalize on a less desired project while placing the real tax-generating assets over the county line in Randolph.
So in the end, a 100 MW data center uses roughly the same power as the Toyota Battery Plant, pays $4.7 million more in property tax, which is almost pure free cash for the county and city, uses a fraction of the utility water capacity, and the noise produced is likely about the same.
So why not consider allowing data centers with reasonable restrictions on size, water usage, and decibel limits on noise? Make sure that every penny of property tax on every screw and semiconductor flows directly to Guilford County, then direct all those millions straight to the school system or wherever it will do the most good for our residents…or even school bond repayment.
“almost free cash for the county and city”
Let’s emphasize ALMOST
So where is the Sierra Club on this?
The folks who opposed the Natural Gas line extensions and additions for Duke Power.
Natural Gas has reduced costs and air pollution vs coal, but the Sierra Club is always a knee jerk gas lighting group.
So my thought is the Sierra Club ought to be against this based on the fact they hate nuclear, coal and NG.
Let’s hear all the pros and cons before a decision is made, but be perfectly clear – AI is losing vast sums of money, and is projected to lose even more in the future unless they raise prices which will probably reduce AI demand.
New Macs and PC’s are out the incorporate AI into the computer reducing the need to hit the cloud and spend expensive tokens on the less complicated AI queries.
There will be an AI bubble, when is the question.
The numbers don’t lie just as “renewable green energy” (solar, wind) was always a pipelineless dream.
I take issue with your closing statement….there are many examples of renewable green energy being highly cost effective in providing energy in high growth markets. Ironically, you only need to look at Texas to see how impactful wind and solar are to growing power demands:
For the first nine months of 2025:
– ERCOT electricity demand was 23% higher than in the same period of 2021
– Wind and Solar supplied 36% of ERCOT’s electricity
– Solar generation was almost 4x its 2021 level
– Wind generation was up 36% from 2021
– Solar alone supplied about 24 GW during the average noon hour in the summer
– Batteries supplied about 4 GW during the 8pmn hour, when solar production had fallen
Also note that in Iowa, wind provided about 58% of their total electricity generation.
This doesn’t mean that solar and wind can replace everything but it is certainly a highly cost efficient way to tactle the rapid growth in demand.
Cheers
I return to the question of what do data centers provide to the local population; or for anyone? They don’t. They creep into our lives because local government is misguided and believes there is an unbelievable flow of tax money to waste. The Toyota plant will employ approximately 5,100 employees. That’s 5,100 who will now have purpose and can provide for their families. Employees who will spend their earned money in the community, including Guilford. Local data centers will employee a handful of employees mostly to keep an idea on machines.
The Toyota plant makes a product that is useful and is in demand. When railroad tracks were being laid in the mid-1800s, the job required labor with the knowledge that at the end, railroads would deliver goods and people faster than ever before. What do data centers deliver? Data centers collect DATA and deliver nothing. Who benefits from the data? The very rich tech oligarchs and government. Data centers make possible Flock cameras that collect and keep information forever, not the seven days or 30 days suggested. Flock cameras do not reduce crime. They might help police find a criminal, but they don’t prevent crime. Data centers are the proverbial camel’s nose under the tent.
There are incentives to data centers which include abatement of property taxes, electricity, and sale tax exemptions. Data centers pay property taxes on their equipment, which servers need replacement every 3-5 years. In fact, everything in data centers need replacement sooner rather than later. Where does this used equipment go? In a landfill? This question needs to be asked and answered.
In a closed loop cooling system, glycol is mixed with water. Has anyone studied the effect of glycol used in closed loop systems? What proponents of data centers don’t say is that closed loop cooling system MIGHT save water, but the loop uses more electricity…our electricity.
Data centers are critical for AI. The same AI that is designed to make mankind extinct, at least on Earth.
closed loop water heating systems (solar thermal) using glycol absorb & carry less heat than water alone – but the glycol offers freeze protection & with inhibitors, corrosion resistance. water heating solar panels are cost effective when the ‘load’ is large such as a laundry or 3+ full bathrooms. a closed loop evap systems should require minimal ‘makeup’ coolant ?
You are correct about glycol, which is what is in antifreeze. I cannot verify that the following is true, but it does seem plausible. A snow-covered truck sat about 10 feet outside a data center in a very cold upper mid-west state. Within a very short period, the snow was melted off the truck. Data centers give off a tremendous amount of heat. They are bad for our planet. Where are all the environmentalists? Have they been bought off by the big tech oligarchs?
I want the oligarchs and government to explain, tell the American people, what do data centers do for and how they benefit Americans. Are the centers just to make life faster, oligarchs richer, government more controlling?