Articles Posted in Data Centers

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On April 7, the Office of Policy for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) published a Request for Information (RFI) seeking input from industry professionals, grid operators, local communities, Tribal governments, and other stakeholders regarding the development and operation of AI infrastructure—including data centers—on DOE-owned or managed lands. This initiative aligns with the January 2025 Executive Order, Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence, which underscores AI as a national and economic security priority. DOE is hoping the RFI provides information that allows it to better understand site interest, strategic data center design approaches, potential power needs, financial and contractual considerations related to leasing DOE-owned or managed lands, and the potential benefits and challenges associated with hosting AI infrastructure on DOE land.

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By one count, worldwide there were some 11,800 data centers in early 2024. Within that census are facilities so small that they fit in office building closets, while others are among the largest manmade structures on the planet. How are we to make sense of this diverse population?

Data centers house servers, storage devices and network devices to store, process and disseminate large quantities of data of organizations and their customers and supply chains. The size and complexity of these facilities vary with their functions in the business ecosystem. Much like the well-known depictions of the evolution of horses from tiny brush creatures to mighty stallions, the overall category cries out to be broken down along multiple dimensions.

This post provides a naturalist’s field guide to data center types and features.

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As we covered previously, President Trump has made clear that the U.S. is focused on increasing investments into building, scaling and speeding the development of AI infrastructure and data centers in the U.S., and Big Tech is responding in kind.

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https://www.gravel2gavel.com/files/2025/01/Seal_of_the_President_of_the_United_States.svg_-300x300.pngLast week, on one of his final days in office, President Biden signed an executive order aimed at boosting the development of energy facilities and data centers for artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Executive Order 14141 directs the secretaries of Defense, Energy and the Interior to lease sites on federal land to private sector companies for the purpose of building data centers and energy generation and transmission facilities. Noting that AI technology has become, and is expected to remain, a “defining technology of our era,” and that both economic and national security risks could arise if the United States falls behind in the race to build AI infrastructure, the Order seeks to reduce regulatory barriers to these projects by speeding the permitting process, and ambitiously seeks to enable construction at these federal sites to commence by January 1, 2026.

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GettyImages-1451308764-300x200Traditional and social media are thick with reports and predictions of the remarkable increase in size, power consumption and significance of data centers. Not only technology companies but real estate and energy developers, investment funds, lenders, and professionals of all stripes are in or determined to enter this sector. Our inboxes are full—it’s data center this, data center that.

But what exactly is a data center? What infrastructure, technology and human resources come together to create and sustain one of these localized points of computation? By understanding their components, we can glean some understanding of the business, public policy and (our focus) legal issues that arise before and during their operation.

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GettyImages-1416937322-e1725893825618-300x172Artificial intelligence, data centers, carbon removal and zero-emission power may sound like a winning line (plus the Free Space) on a 2024 Buzzword Bingo card. But the concepts have come into dramatic real-world tension as private and public actors seek to accommodate the digital and environmental imperatives for green energy.

After years of fairly stable demand, punctuated by declines during the pandemic and economic slumps, electricity demand is projected to double by 2050. A principal cause is the rapid expansion in the power needed to energize and cool servers amid explosive growth in the number and size of data centers, crypto miners, and other point sources of computation. Data centers were 3% of U.S. demand and are projected to be up to 9% or more by 2030; AI will drive a 160% surge in data center demand by 2030. A commentator notes, “We haven’t seen [growth like] this in a generation.” Continue Reading ›

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GettyImages-885296366-1-300x225Due to the rapidly increasing amount of data generated and consumed on the internet, an opportunity exists for commercial real estate investors, lenders, developers, green energy providers and others to develop data center facilities. Social media, streaming services, cryptocurrencies, the internet of things and other innovations have resulted in data center supply shortages. AI technologies, such as ChatGPT, require vast amounts of computing power. And, as AI demands grow, data center operators need to adapt the infrastructure to address cooling requirements in a sustainable manner.

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