06/09/2026
Data Centers - Well done leadership by Caroline Gleich and my thoughts on the topic - 1st in a series.
Daniel Keiley - North American Board Certified Clean Energy Expert.
Professional Skier - PSIA, USSA, and AIARE Certified with over 40 years of experience.
Retired Aerospace Engineer.
Lifelong outdoors person and environmentalist.
Here in Utah, Caroline Gleich, a recent candidate for senator and political activist, has emerged as our leader on this subject. I’ve listened to her posts, reviewed all her points, fact-checked, and delved into the science. After drafting my own ideas on the subject, I reviewed Caroline’s presentations and chose to acknowledge her contributions. My publications on Facebook, LinkedIn, and local media will credit her while sharing my own knowledge, experiences, and technical expertise.
The first two subjects I’d like to speak to are jobs and energy. Stay tuned for more in the future.
Jobs:
For the past three decades, the early versions of data centers were in the works. “Server farms,” as they are commonly called. My home state of Washington was an ideal location due to its affordable hydroelectric power and the fact that two-thirds of the state was rural. Cheap land and labor were readily available in the communities where these plants were constructed.
After the construction phase, reality set in. There were no parking lots filled with the automobiles of daily workers. These facilities require very small staffs for operation and maintenance. Rural youth who had trained in computer technology and electronics at colleges and tech schools, anticipating jobs close to home, were left unemployed in their home communities. These communities felt deceived.
Data centers are a scaled-up version with the same unfortunate reality attached.
Read the book, or check out the summary of “What’s the Matter With Kansas” by Thomas Frank, published in 2004. https://tcfrank.com/product/whats-the-matter-with-kansas/
Thankfully, public awareness of “Power Grabs-Land Grabs” has grown in the last few decades. Congratulations citizens of Box Elder County Utah for standing up for your rights.
Clean energy has since created far more jobs in Washington, a topic for a future writing.
2) Power and Energy, my personal area of expertise:
Computers are powerful tools, but they will never be able to create the power they need to run. Our personal laptops are highly efficient in their use of electrical power, as are larger computers. That said, even with efficient electronics, scaling up to the level of a data center consumes energy at unprecedented levels.
The use of natural gas to power the Stratos Data Center in Box Elder County Utah using the Ruby Pipeline:
This conversation is worthy of a PhD thesis and certainly an expert is out there that could share more on this.
Here is a short version: Gas is a fossil fuel and fossil fuels are on their way out. Gas does indeed burn “cleaner” than other fossil fuels but still emits CO2. Drilling operations, pipelines, and compressor stations every 100 miles along the pipeline are substantial projects with high carbon footprints both in their construction and operation. Gas leakage is known to be extremely problematic worldwide in the pipelines, pump stations, and at the well heads. Satellites are in orbit as I write with instrumentation seeking to quantify the extent of this problem.��The future of natural gas is shaping up like this:
A. Harvest it and burn it on site. The resultant CO2 is less harmful than the gas leaking into the atmosphere. Gas turbine generators convert this otherwise escaped gas into electrical power that can be added to the existing grid. Some additional power lines will be required, a far lesser evil than more pipelines.
B. Keep it in the ground. Seal the gas off at its source, and don’t drill for it in the first place.
3) Final thoughts for today:
Search the internet for more insight and confirmation on what’s covered here. Take a science class at your local educational institution on energy, environment, biology, agriculture, or related politics and business. Attend community meetings, be engaged, and become knowledgeable in these critical subjects.
Look for my future blogs on: Land use by Data Centers. On-site wind and solar power for Data Centers. Water use by Data Centers, and the ultimate purpose of Data Centers.
