Bessemer, AL Residents Not In The Mood To Be Condescended To By AI Megasite Developers

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So far, officials in the city of 25,000 have shown little interest in publicly digging into the details of what could be one of the largest development projects in state history—one that would require the clearcutting of more than 100 acres of land, threaten endangered species and lead to large increases in water and electricity usage. Instead, public officials, many bound by non-disclosure agreements with the developer, have relied on the assertions of the company proposing the project—a company that has so far refused to answer media questions about the impact of their plans on the community and the environment.

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To find “the facts,” Inside Climate News interviewed the developer’s representative, public officials and residents who live near the proposed development site on key topics and claims. Among the findings: Because of the need to cool the computer servers and other electronics in the proposed data center, the facility—consisting of 18 buildings, each the size of a Walmart Supercenter—could consume large amounts of water. The specific amount of water used by a data center campus depends primarily on its size and on its specific method of cooling.

Representatives of the developer behind the Bessemer project have said they’re unsure which method of cooling will ultimately be used by the proposed data center campus because an end user has not yet been secured. At a June meeting, Kaaber told planning and zoning commissioners that a large tech firm, likely a Fortune 10 company, would eventually sign on as the facility’s primary customer—Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook among the chief possibilities. Only then, with a final user in place, would there be firm estimates of water usage.

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In addition to significant water usage, the data center in Bessemer will consume an enormous amount of electricity, with servers running around the clock. A document produced by Evans & Evans, the law firm representing the developer, suggests that at total buildout, the proposed data center campus would consume around 1,200 megawatts of energy. That’s more than 90 times the amount of energy used by all residences in Bessemer and more than 10 times the amount of energy used by all residences in Birmingham annually. An increase of that magnitude would amount to a 10 percent rise in Alabama Power’s total electricity demand statewide.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25072025/alabama-proposed-hyperscale-data-center-impacts/



















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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25072025/alabama-proposed-hyperscale-data-center-impacts/