Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built • Hacker News Board

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#31

Post by rtkwe » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:29 PM UTC

rzerowan wrote: post #16

b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

whether they actually just hate gas turbine generators running 24/7 in their neighborhoods. Or the increased pollution (air, light, and sound) from having a warehouse-sized building of GPUs next to you. I'm already annoyed by my neighbors having spotlights pointed at their own houses or leaving garage lights on through the night that shine in through my bedroom windows.

Im wondering why the typical design is a warehouse with horizontal sprawl . Wouldnt it make sense to go vertical up or down . Smaller footprint if insidea a metro area by having a skyscarper type data center , as i recall AT&T used to have such windowless anonymous buldings scattered in some cities for their equipment. Or have a Silo type structure going down if in a more rural area to not blight the landscape.With a…

It's cheaper to build out rather than build up. Datacenters are mass dense so building up requires thick floors and supports for the upper floors.

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#32

Post by tempfile » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:29 PM UTC

TimTheTinker wrote: post #15

The rumor is going around on X that foreign enemies of the US (especially China) are trying to influence Americans through social networks against building data centers.

Why would you believe anything posted on X? The platform deliberately promotes misinformation, and has for years.

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#33

Post by forgotpwagain » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:30 PM UTC

boc wrote: post #2

One under-discussed topic is whether Americans hate data centers in their neighborhoods, or whether they actually just hate gas turbine generators running 24/7 in their neighborhoods.

And also their electricity bills rising because of datacenter power demands.

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#34

Post by lbriner » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:30 PM UTC

rzerowan wrote: post #16

b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

whether they actually just hate gas turbine generators running 24/7 in their neighborhoods. Or the increased pollution (air, light, and sound) from having a warehouse-sized building of GPUs next to you. I'm already annoyed by my neighbors having spotlights pointed at their own houses or leaving garage lights on through the night that shine in through my bedroom windows.

Im wondering why the typical design is a warehouse with horizontal sprawl . Wouldnt it make sense to go vertical up or down . Smaller footprint if insidea a metro area by having a skyscarper type data center , as i recall AT&T used to have such windowless anonymous buldings scattered in some cities for their equipment. Or have a Silo type structure going down if in a more rural area to not blight the landscape.With a…

Definitely cost although your idea does sound more attractive. A small footprint much further away from the boundary than normal. You could even make them look nice but since demand is massive and timescales so long, I think anything that might take longer is a "no".

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#35

Post by wiether » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:30 PM UTC

JohnFen wrote: post #8

boc wrote: post #2

One under-discussed topic is whether Americans hate data centers in their neighborhoods, or whether they actually just hate gas turbine generators running 24/7 in their neighborhoods.

At least in my part of the US, the datacenters built (and planned) are not running their own gas generators, but are just as hated here as they are most other places due to the other adverse impacts they have.

Aren't all DC equipped with gas generators as backups? And they have to run it for an hour every quarter to make sure they work?

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#36

Post by christophilus » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:31 PM UTC

mapping365 wrote: post #9

I think it can't be categorized as NIMBYism because the underlying sentiment is not just no data centers in my backyard, but anyones backyard. It's about the AI project itself, even if it expresses itself differently for a local context.

I’m fine with datacenters being built as long as we have some rules: they have to be quiet enough to not be audible beyond the border of the land owned by the datacenter. They have to pay for new electrical capacity so that they don’t burden locals with that externality. Really, that’s it. I think most people could get behind that.

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#37

Post by dylan604 » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:31 PM UTC

rzerowan wrote: post #16

b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

whether they actually just hate gas turbine generators running 24/7 in their neighborhoods. Or the increased pollution (air, light, and sound) from having a warehouse-sized building of GPUs next to you. I'm already annoyed by my neighbors having spotlights pointed at their own houses or leaving garage lights on through the night that shine in through my bedroom windows.

Im wondering why the typical design is a warehouse with horizontal sprawl . Wouldnt it make sense to go vertical up or down . Smaller footprint if insidea a metro area by having a skyscarper type data center , as i recall AT&T used to have such windowless anonymous buldings scattered in some cities for their equipment. Or have a Silo type structure going down if in a more rural area to not blight the landscape.With a…

Coming from a construction family, the saying oft heard saying was "it's more expensive to build up than out". Also, zoning codes can set limits on how tall of a building can be built. Four stories is a common limit which also happens to coincide with the max height for a timber construction is also four stories. If you're out in the 'burbs, you probably wouldn't want to see a random 10 story boring windowless concrete building sticking up somewhere.

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#38

Post by tempfile » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:31 PM UTC

Legend2440 wrote: post #21

JohnFen wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in my part of the US, the datacenters built (and planned) are not running their own gas generators, but are just as hated here as they are most other places due to the other adverse impacts they have.

I don't really think it's about the adverse impacts. That one in utah everybody hated was gonna be built in an empty valley. There would have been no impact to neighbors because there weren't any, and no impact to the grid because they planned to build their own nuclear power plant.

They are being built to support an industry which is itself an adverse impact.

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#39

Post by Analemma_ » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:31 PM UTC

TimTheTinker wrote: post #15

The rumor is going around on X that foreign enemies of the US (especially China) are trying to influence Americans through social networks against building data centers.

I can't think of a faster way to permanently solidify someone's opinion than being told "you only have this opinion because an enemy foreign government told you to; get your opinions from your friendly local government instead."

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#40

Post by bpodgursky » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:31 PM UTC

palmotea wrote: post #19

woah wrote: post #4

It's sad. For all the lamenting that the US is losing industrial capacity (or lost it long ago), we can't even handle some of the lightest industry possible. A big building that hums and releases slightly warm water, and the only sector in which we could still be called a world leader. Instead of trying to find property tax arrangements that work to give municipalities a big payoff, and power supply arrangements that…

> It's sad. For all the lamenting that the US is losing industrial capacity (or lost it long ago), we can't even handle some of the lightest industry possible. A big building that hums and releases slightly warm water, and the only sector in which we could still be called a world leader. No. Data centers have very, very few positive externalities for the people who live around them. They employ very few people, use a…

The point of industrial capacity is a positive externality for the country not that it makes someone's backyard prettier.