It won’t be easy for Big Tech companies to win the hearts and minds of Americans who are angered about massive artificial intelligence data centers sprouting up in their neighborhoods, straining electricity grids and drawing on local reservoirs.

Residents questioned American Tower’s proposed 7-acre data center near homes in Pike Township, raising concerns as the project moves to a hearing examiner.

For example, a typical center drawing 100 megawatts of power would over a year consume about 613,200 megawatt hours of electricity, an amount similar to what 56,000 homes would use in a year. To cool those servers, that same 100 MW center would also use 100 million gallons of water, about what 25,000 people would use in a year.

At least one data center developer has expressed “very preliminary” interest in working with the City of Taneytown, Mayor Chris Miller said.

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – AI data centers are the future. They will lead to construction and technology jobs in our state. But right now, we are blowing it. Under current circumstances, it’s possible that not a single AI project in Wisconsin will come to fruition.