Data centers thrive where there is cheap land and access to data lines. In Atlanta's case, it's the south side, where many of Black's suburbs have more and more large developments.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Georgia is one of the states where companies are eager to build data centers thanks to generous incentives and strong fiber optic infrastructure, especially around Atlanta. Many of these centers are popping up in Atlanta's suburbs – especially, as Atlanta radio station WABE's DorMia Vance reports, in the majority-Black South.
DORMIA VANCE, BYLINE: Driving down a dusty country road in Fayetteville, Georgia, about 40 minutes south of downtown Atlanta, you come across large expanses of greenery and suburban homes. The trip is calm, but then…
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DIANE DIETZ: You can't leave your house without seeing some huge construction vehicles on the roads.
VANCE: Diane Dietz has lived here since the '90s and is now tracking the growth of data centers in the area. We stop at a construction site where miles of trees have been cut down. Dietz talks to a worker at a construction site.
DIETZ: Interesting. I never thought about these things until they started building a bunch…
UNIDENTIFIED BUILDER: And most of it is just to feed the QTS there.
DIETZ: Just to feed the QTS?
VANCE: QTS is the new data center that will be built here – a 600-acre campus.
KESIA SCOTT: I've seen what used to be a cozy, quaint, woodsy neighborhood completely change.
VANCE: Kecia Scott lives in Planters Ridge, a predominantly black, middle-class neighborhood. Her home is now directly across the street from the new data center. She says she only knew about the project after she moved.
SCOTT: And now I have to come to terms with the fact that my life here, as I once thought it was, has now changed significantly.
VANCE: Beyond the changing landscape, residents like Scott are concerned about the environmental impact and the large amounts of water and electricity required to operate data centers. There are at least a hundred such facilities in Georgia, most of them south of Atlanta. That's because despite the growing suburbs, there is still more rural land here than in other parts of metro Atlanta, Lynn McKee said. He teaches real estate at Georgia State University.
LYNN MACKIE: People don't want these big data centers next to their homes. But you get out and go to South Atlanta or rural Georgia, and it's just land, land, land.
VANCE: More land is open on the south side. But that's not the only reason for the increase, says Georgia Tech professor Ahmed Saeed.
AHMED SAID: Georgia is making it very attractive to build data centers here.
VANCE: That's because of lucrative tax incentives for the industry supported by Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Last year, he vetoed a bill that would have suspended the tax breaks. South Side residents are beginning to speak out about the impact of data centers in black neighborhoods. And some Republicans want more protections for communities, like state Sen. Chuck Hufstetler.
CHUCK HAFSTETLER: You know, there are people who want to give away the farm and others who don't want any growth. And I just want us to be smart about this.
VANCE: But his efforts to do so have stalled in the Legislature. Meanwhile, Georgia Power abandoned efforts to close two coal plants, saying it now needs them to serve customers with greater energy needs.
For NPR News, I'm DorMia Vance in Atlanta.
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