“Something that we were surprised to learn through this process is you’d rather be living next to a natural gas power plant than living next to a whole bunch of data centers, in terms of the total amount of air pollution they put out per year,” said Damian Pitt, Ph.D., an associate professor in VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, who conducted the study alongside colleague I-Shian (Ivan) Suen, Ph.D., and graduate student Ellie Plisko.
Electrical Gluttony. Water Consumption. Noise Pollution. Ground Vibration. Powerline Harmonics. Exploring the Web of Land-Grabby, Depopulative, Anti-Meat, Anti-Farm and Anti-Human Incessant Toxic Badness.
Covering every known aspect of Datacenters, including the paranormal.
Sourced Series deeply explores the Many Serious Ill-Effects of Datacenters.
Every statement is sourced by scientific studies, published anecdotes, harmed victims.
Learn from others’ mistakes, or suffer similarly.
“A 2026 power-engineering study found that hyperscale data centers behave not merely as electrical loads, but as vast power-electronics systems whose rapidly fluctuating server demands can excite grid oscillations and propagate disturbances across interconnected networks. Far from a fringe “dirty electricity” claim, the research suggests data centers may interact with the power grid in ways fundamentally different from traditional industrial facilities, raising serious new concerns about resonance, stability, reliability.”
SOURCE
Northern Virginia’s data center boom is creating a fast-growing air pollution threat from diesel
backup generators, according to Virginia Commonwealth University research. Emissions from 138
data centers rose sharply from 2015 to 2023: carbon monoxide up 196%, nitrous oxides up 111%,
and particulate matter up 139%.
The danger is not just current pollution, but what data centers are legally permitted to emit.
If they reached those limits, they could account for 49% of regional point-source carbon
monoxide, 74% of nitrous oxides, and 50% of particulate matter pollution.
“Something that we were surprised to learn through this process is you’d rather be living next
to a natural gas power plant than living next to a whole bunch of data centers,” said Damian
Pitt, Ph.D., VCU.
Pitt said the permitted worst case is “just leagues beyond anything that is associated with any
other existing facilities in the region.”
The burden is uneven: Prince William and Loudoun counties contain the 10 most affected
neighborhoods, and higher exposure correlates with lower income, lower education levels, and
more renters.
“The big picture here is basically that places that have high emission levels or exposure are
correlated with less advantaged or vulnerable populations overall,” said I-Shian “Ivan” Suen,
Ph.D., VCU.
To find out whether pollutants from data center generators are unevenly affecting different demographics, the researchers overlayed regional census maps on top of their air pollution maps. Areas with lower household incomes, lower education levels and higher proportions of renters to homeowners tended to be polluted with higher levels of carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide pollution from data centers.
Pitt’s warning: current emissions are already concerning, but if they approached permitted
levels, “it would be a whole different ballgame.”