LAS VEGAS, NV (KTNV) — As we wrap up our weeklong series diving into data centers and what they mean for our desert, we know you probably still have a lot of questions.
So do we. Frankly, we have more questions than answers as this industry has quickly proliferated in our state.
WATCH | DATA VS. DESERT: PART 5
Ongoing transparency challenges make it difficult to get a true look at the scope and impacts of this burgeoning industry. Today, we're taking you through the process of putting our Data vs. Desert series together, and what questions still remain.
When climate reporter Geneva Zoltek and I set out to do this series earlier this year, it was really spurred by a ballot question that we knew Boulder City residents were going to vote on in the November midterms, asking whether data centers should be an allowed land use in the Eldorado Valley Transfer Area. I wanted to do a deep dive to help local voters better understand what data centers are and what they mean for our community, so they could feel confident about making an informed decision at the polls.
But we soon learned, the Boulder City ballot question was just the tip of the iceberg, as data centers quickly became one of the most talked-about topics across the country this year. The issue has really taken on a life of its own, with many Americans seeing data centers as a threat to our communities, while many others see them as the future and a source of revenue.
At Channel 13, we'd been reporting on proposed data center projects here and there in the Las Vegas Valley this year as the issue became a talker, but Geneva and I felt there was a serious need for cohesive coverage on what exactly these facilities are, how they're evolving, and what they mean for us on a larger scale. It's the talk of the town, yet we really know so little about the nebulous issue. So, we decided to do a week of coverage, with daily stories looking at the industry in Southern Nevada as a whole. Even after months of research, there's still so much we don't know.
Pulling back the curtain
Many locals have told us that part of their concerns surrounding these facilities stems from the fact that they demand land and resources — and oftentimes a large quantity of them — yet we seldom (if ever) get a look inside those sprawling centers. We reached out to several local data centers repeatedly to try to get a tour, and had difficulty even getting responses, and the couple of times we did, the line would eventually go cold. Data centers do often house sensitive equipment and information, but they have, on occasion, allowed media inside, at least in other places.
A dearth of data
Not only did we struggle to just get our foot in the door of a data center, finding information about them can be challenging. There's no one, authoritative agency that tracks data center information in Nevada or monitors their impact to the environment and community. While traditional data centers have been around for awhile, the new ones driven by AI are much different, and there is a real thirst in the community for information about what that evolution means for us.
So ultimately, getting data was a slow, piecemeal process: making multiple records requests to different water service providers, poring through NV Energy planning documents, interviewing Desert Research Institute scientists who'd just published a paper on data centers in Nevada, and more. In the end, we put all of that information we gleaned together in the hopes of creating a full scope of the data center industry locally, but there are still missing pieces. Nevadans have told us they fear data centers are being overbuilt, that we don't have the infrastructure to support the rapid growth that's anticipated, and that they fear the tax revenues may not outweigh the risks. Those are just some of the questions locals have that, frankly, we don't really have definitive answers to.
We know this is a quickly evolving conversation, with new policies and projects popping up practically daily. While this concludes our week of special coverage, we at Channel 13 are committed to following this issue, and what it means to have data centers in our desert.
Below are the 4 previous installments of our Data vs. Desert series:
- Data centers in Southern Nevada: Why they’re booming and why now
- Water required: Why data centers use so much water in Southern Nevada
- What steps are Southern Nevada leaders taking — or not taking — to regulate the growing data center industry?
- Nevada’s 'unprecedented' data center boom comes with a massive power bill
For a comprehensive look at our previous and ongoing coverage on this topic, click here to access our Data vs. Desert landing page.
As always, reach out to us with your questions and story ideas.
