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Myths vs Facts

Myth: "Data Centers use a lot of water"

Fact: Data centers use water for cooling, and these methods vary to maximize cooling efficiency. Many modern sites use closed-loop or air-based cooling that recirculates or uses no water at all. Illinois is a part of the Great Lakes Compact, which imposes additional regulations to protect our water sources.

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Myth: "Data centers will make my electricity bill go up"

Fact: There are opportunities to build in provisions and protections to ensure that large industrial customers, like data centers, do not shift costs to residential or small business customers. These facilities operate under special rate structures and long-term agreements that protect all other ratepayers. While broader economic or supply-chain factors can influence overall energy markets, the presence of a data center itself will not directly raise the community’s energy bill.

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Ultimately, the deciding factors in higher electrical rates are not data centers; they are utility regulation, cost allocation rules, and local energy supply.

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Myth: "Data centers don't benefit local communities"

Fact: Data centers can indirectly support local communities through funding, infrastructure, and partnerships. Tax revenues alone can contribute to school funding, workforce training, education programs, and digital accessibility. Some regions (e.g., Virginia) collect billions in annual tax revenue from data centers. 

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Myth: "Data Centers emit a lot of heat."

Fact: While Data centers do emit heat, managing heat is one of their biggest engineering challenges. They do not, however, "create" heat in the sense of adding new energy to the planet—they convert electrical energy (which often comes from power plants that already generate heat). But locally, they can significantly warm the surrounding environment, especially in dense clusters. 

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Newer data center facilities, however, can capture and reuse heat waste by heating nearby buildings, supporting district heating systems in colder regions, and warming greenhouses. These opportunities can be implemented in new data center development. 

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Myth: "Data centers' electromagnetic fields (EMF) will poorly impact my health."

Fact: Electromagnetic fields produced by high-voltage transmission lines serving a data center fall within the non-ionizing range, similar to emissions from Wi-Fi routers and common household electronics. According to the World Health Organization, these low-frequency EMF levels are well below thresholds known to affect human health.

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Myth: "Data centers will pollute the air and destroy the ecosystem."

Fact: Not all data centers use diesel generators. If they do, they serve as backups in the event the primary power source is compromised by an unusual event, such as a natural disaster. Some facilities are starting to adopt cleaner on-site power solutions. Battery energy storage systems can replace diesel generators during outages, therefore reducing pollution. Hybrid microgrids paired with renewable energy offer another option, supporting community resilience without increasing emissions.

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Myth: "Data centers are just for bitcoin/crypto mines."

Fact: Data centers host a mix of workloads, and bitcoin and crypto mining represent only a small fraction of the global data industry. Data centers are used for cloud computing, internet services, corporate data centers and Artificial Intelligence. 

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