A panel on both sides of the data center debate answered questions for three hours Wednesday night as at least a couple hundred people listened intently.
The forum at the Bloomington Center for the Performing arts was a joint effort of the City of Bloomington and the Town of Normal. Both bodies have six-month moratoriums on data centers, with the clock ticking. They billed the event as educational, and questions were chosen from advance submissions.
Topics ranged from definitions around some commonly used terms, as well as concerns around environmental and economic impacts of all types.
Andrew Rehn of Urbana, director of climate policy for Prairie Rivers Network, defined a kilowatt as the amount of energy a home would use. A megawatt is 1,000 kilowatts, so a 1,000 megawatt data center is 1 million homes of energy.
“That’s what’s really unique about this moment is how large data centers that are coming are,” Rehn said.
He noted one proposed facility in Joliet was to be 1,800 megawatts, or nearly 2 million homes, “comparable to half of all of Chicago.”
Moderator Susan Saunders pointed out a common misperception that data centers are only for AI, when in fact they help power everything from Netflix to Google searches.
“We’ve all wondered, where is the cloud? Now we know.”
She also called out that small data centers already exist in Bloomington.
Some of the explanations were deeply technical, underscoring the complexity around assessing the impact. For instance, determining whether a “closed loop system” used for cooling really means water isn’t being used in large quantities depends on the system. In fact, it may use more water to cool that system.
“The heat has to leave the facility, right? And it will ultimately leave the facility in one of two ways - in the air or in the water,” Rehn said. “I find that the term closed loop is so broad that it doesn’t tell you exactly what’s happening.”
And making data centers pay for infrastructure needs around their increased power usage was similarly complex, with some issues falling on other entities such as state and federal governments, and even power companies.
Brad Tietz, a director of government affairs for the Data Center Coalition, agreed data centers should pay their fair share, but “at the end of the day, we don’t allocate costs, utilities do."
The event was tense, but never became contentious, with Saunders interspersing humor throughout the event and making light of technical difficulties with a pair of panelists who joined by Zoom.
Before the meeting, Illinois People’s Action had protested the lack of opportunity for live public questions, issuing a press release that said they’d presented more than 400 signatures asking officials to reconsider.
The format didn’t change, and several volunteers from the group handed out red cards to be held up when audience members didn’t believe a speaker.
Elizabeth Kosuth, communications director for the group, said they handed out more than 100 cards.
Most attendees were plainly opposed to data centers, grumbling when Michael Brown, executive director of the Ecology Action Center, described a visit to an Aurora data center where noise topped 90 decibels at a walking trail 200 feet away. Noise above 70 decibels is considered unsafe.
And panelists disagreed about electrical rates, with most worried about recouping the cost of infrastructure improvements, and Tietz suggesting there were circumstances where those improvements could ultimately lower rates.
Rehn acknowledged the possibility, but said it’s not likely.
“There is an explanation of why an energy user might reduce your energy costs. That explanation does not hold valid in a case where you have capacity constraints like we do,” he said, drawing applause.
Other issues included concerns about nondisclosure agreements involving public officials working with data center companies, employment, the impact on animals, and the decommissioning of centers if they become obsolete.
Overall, Bloomington Mayor Dan Brady said hundreds of questions had been submitted.
Clear agreements important
For a community approached by a data center, the panelists agreed preparation and clarity were paramount, particularly with state-level guidelines not yet finalized.
Panelist Adam Zellner, president of energy consulting firm Greener by Design, said the key is to agree to standards, monitor those standards, then set clear consequences if those standards are not met.
“It’s making sure that the data center can create a revenue stream so that the towns can hire their own professionals independently year after year to monitor that - whatever it is.”
A video of the forum will be available online via both municipalities’ web sites.
Normal Mayor Chris Koos said the forum was an important part of the cities’ exploration of data centers.
"I can tell you we have the same questions in government that you have. The jury’s out for a lot of us on this on where this could go.”
And he said public hearings set for Oct. 1 and Nov 5 will help everyone understand the issue better.
“We have to understand the impacts if we do something. We have to understand the impacts if we don’t,” he said.
