Scientists have been sounding the alarm on just how bad AI and data centers are for the environment. And now, researchers have proof that data centers 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 hot spot for data center growth in the U.S.
Researchers looked at a 36-megawatt facility in Mesa and a larger 169-megawatt data center campus in nearby Chandler. They found that not only were air temperatures warmer in downwind neighborhoods, but the heat also 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,” said David Sailor, the study’s lead author and director of Arizona State’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. “They are 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.”
Urban “heat islands” are making already-warm American cities like Phoenix unbearably hot, as buildings and pavement give off far more heat than greenery and trees. Adding to this thermal strain, the exhaust air from data centers’ cooling systems—in rural, suburban, and urban areas alike—is about 14 to 25 degrees warmer than the outside air, according to the study. To put this in perspective, a single facility can release the equivalent yearly waste heat of 40,000 U.S. households.
Meanwhile, a previous study published in March, led by U.K. researchers, found that data centers were increasing land temperatures by up to 16 degrees, potentially affecting some 340 million people globally.
Environmentalists argue that data centers, which are needed to power artificial intelligence, impact surrounding communities in a number of other ways, including raising energy demand and utility bills, draining water supplies, and creating pollution, often in lower-income areas that suffer disproportionately—all while Big Tech reaps the benefits.