The federal government has approved the building of a data center on public land.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) announcement allowing a facility on 88.5 acres of public land in July is believed to be the country’s first data center on nationally managed public land.
While the site was originally approved as a solar energy facility, the BLM transferred the approval from a solar farm to a data center without additional National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review and public comment period. The agency claims the two projects and their environmental impacts are “substantially the same,” allowing the project to continue.
Local officials, including Boulder City’s communications director Lisa LaPlante, disagree with the BLM’s assessment. “A data center cannot be equated to solar and battery energy storage systems,” LaPlante told Field & Stream. “A solar and battery energy storage facility generates power and sends power out. A data center consumes large amounts of power and water.”
LaPlante said the facility would use up to 600,000 gallons of water from Boulder City’s municipal water supply and use 167 megawatts of electricity each year, which is more electricity than what’s needed to power the town itself.
