South Korea · United Kingdom · The Guardian Technology
The datacentre next door: on the frontline of tech’s latest David v Goliath battle
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D ale Johnston opens the gate to his neat suburban garden on the western fringes of Newport in South Wales.
Key facts
- There are 315 hyperscale datacentres waiting to connect to the national grid, which carries electricity from power plants to homes and businesses (hyperscale typically means facilities with at least
- Globally, it is estimated spending on new facilities could reach $7tn by 2030, more than double the cost of the New Deal, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after the second world war and the Apollo
- He already has to keep his bathroom window closed to stop the low hum from another facility on the rapidly expanding 46-acre datacentre campus that borders the small enclave of 27 houses
- Greg Pirio’s life was turned upside down when a gas-powered datacentre opened 150 metres from his home last year
Summary
The 23 metre-high grey hulk looming over him and his neighbours is a hyperscale datacentre. Johnston, who used to work for a chemical company in the city, worries what their lives will be like when the centre is switched on: the 36 sets of air blast coolers, needed to stop the chips inside overheating, most likely generate a constant drone, while regular testing of 60 back-up diesel generators, to prevent costly interruption to the flow of data, could produce harmful fumes. Johnston can talk about little else, but he feels no one in authority is listening. T his is the frontline of Britain’s datacentre boom, which is pitting residents against giant US tech firms seeking to build a network of facilities capable of providing the immense computing muscle for powerful AI models.