Once dominated by furniture and textile mills, small towns west of Charlotte are now seeing a different kind of growth. Catawba County, Caldwell County and other foothill communities that once powered North Carolina’s manufacturing economy have now been transformed into a major data center corridor, hosting facilities for some of the biggest tech companies in the world.
Data centers are the physical backbone of our digital world. The centers keep online services, websites and digital apps running around the clock, as these buildings are home to thousands of servers that need constant electricity for their operations and cooling systems to prevent overheating.
As the demand for this kind of digital infrastructure grows, so does the reliance on land, electricity and water. New data centers promise incoming tax revenue and job creation, but they also raise concerns about environmental impact, energy use, transparency and how much local communities actually benefit.
Artificial intelligence and cloud computing are driving the data center boom in North Carolina, with over 100 centers already in the state, according to Data Center Map’s tracker. In Charlotte, it was recently announced that a building in uptown would be demolished to make way for a four-story data center. However, plans in Matthews and Mooresville were scrapped in the last months as residents opposed the large-scale projects.
We look at the boom of data centers across the region and what it means for the state. We’ll examine the pros and cons of a sector only expected to continue growing with million- and billion-dollar investments from companies.
GUESTS:
Nick Jimenez, senior attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center
Robert Cox, executive director, Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) at UNCC
Scott Millar, president, Catawba County Economic Development Corporation
