“Dismissing fears around water consumption, for example, by showing a spreadsheet at a local planning committee meeting, doesn’t resolve concerns for a community that is already suspicious,” he said.
Community opposition “is real, and it’s everywhere,” and the new strategic pillar for data center builders and operators is social outreach, Kimball noted. Those proposing data centers must be able to provide credible answers about usage and community impacts, listen to concerns, and commit to transparency.
Most enterprises aren’t building gigawatt campuses, he pointed out, but they are paying the price downstream in colocation availability, lead times, pricing, and other factors. Predictability is the big question, supply is already tight, and every delayed project removes capacity factored into forecasts.