What are AI data centers? Here’s how the planned Meta facility in Louisiana could work.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is planning to build a massive artificial intelligence data center in north Louisiana, a first of its kind for the state.
The tech giant’s project would cost $5 billion, according to filings to the Public Service Commission from Entergy, and would require three new natural gas power plants and other generation updates from Entergy to power the facility.
If approved, the proposed AI facility could use nearly a third of Entergy’s power in Louisiana, state officials said. But it is also projected to provide hundreds of jobs in a part of the state with high rates of poverty, and state officials have celebrated the announcement for that reason.
Here’s how data centers work and what could be in store for the state.
What are data centers?
Data centers are airport-sized buildings filled with computer servers and other IT infrastructure that serve as a facility for companies to store, process and send out data.
In addition to storage and cloud services, the powerful facilities can support things like AI machine learning, social media, large eCommerce purchases, real-time map services, and even cryptocurrency mining.
Companies like Meta, Amazon and Microsoft are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to construct these processing hubs across the U.S. and overseas, and data centers are a critical part of the AI boom that is rapidly transforming the global tech industry.
Specialized AI data centers, sometimes called “AI factories,” provide the infrastructure to help train AI systems and algorithms and deliver insights on them. This training requires huge amounts of data processing power.
How many are there in the U.S.?
The United States accounts for roughly 40% of the global data center market, according to McKinsey and Company, a global management consulting firm.
Data from Statista shows that there are over 5,000 data centers in the U.S. Germany, which has the next highest share of data centers in the world, houses just 521.
Meta currently operates more than two dozen data centers in the country.
Earlier this month, one of Meta’s newest data centers was completed outside of Nashville. The 800-acre campus has two buildings totaling more than 1.5 million square feet, with plans for a third underway. The $1.5 billion facility employed 1,100 construction workers while it was being built and now has 100 full-time employees.
How much power do they use?
Because data centers are constantly running computers and servers, they require massive amounts of energy to operate. They also require fans and cooling to prevent overheating.
Over the past several years, energy use by data centers has grown by 20% to 40% annually, according to the International Energy Agency, and data centers currently use 1% of the global power supply. Between 2017 and 2021, combined electricity use by Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta more than doubled, the IEA reported.
The energy required to run data centers, especially AI data centers, is expected to continue to grow. According to TIME Magazine, researchers have found that the cost of the computational power required to train AI models is doubling every nine months.
In smaller countries, data centers have taken up a large portion of total electricity consumption. Ireland placed a moratorium on new data centers in Dublin until 2028 after they accounted for 18% of the country’s total electricity consumption in 2022, according to the IEA.
State officials say that if the Louisiana AI data center is opened, it could account for 30% of Entergy’s power in Louisiana.
On top of energy consumption, data centers also require large quantities of water to cool the computer systems. For instance, a few dozen questions to ChatGPT can generate the amount of water in a 16 oz cup. And by 2027, the global AI water usage is projected to be equivalent to the water consumption of a small European nation.
What are the plans for the Louisiana data center?
Meta is expected to set up shop on over 2,250 acres of agricultural land off Highway 183 in Richland Parish, about 80 miles east of Monroe, according to a public notice. The $5 billion project is expected to employ 300 to 500 people with an average salary of $82,000, according to filings to the Public Service Commission from Entergy.
To support the facility, Entergy is asking state regulators for three natural gas plants that would support the center and deliver a total of 2,262 megawatts of power generation. The energy company is also requesting new transmission lines and other grid updates.
The data center would also need additional generation, Entergy filings to the commission show, including an additional 1,500 megawatts of solar power. For scale, Entergy’s New Orleans Power Station generates up to 128 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power around 80,000 homes.
Entergy’s plans for the new plants include incorporating other renewable energy sources in the future, such as nuclear, solar and wind.
What are the concerns about the plan?
Critics have raised concerns over the project’s massive energy consumption, reliance on fossil fuels, high water demand and the effects the data center could have on ratepayers. Environmental, nonprofit and utility groups have intervened in the case.
Entergy says that the tech giant would cover a large portion of the new power plants that would fuel the data center, but some worry that customers could be impacted down the line, or if Meta decides to abandon the project.
Officials are touting the project as a huge win for northeast Louisiana, an area that has long struggled with high rates of poverty. Meta’s completed data center in Nashville led to a mix of temporary construction jobs and permanent roles, typically requiring an associate’s degree.
But some advocates question whether the new jobs at the Louisiana data center will primarily be construction roles, and the extent to which they’ll benefit the people of north Louisiana.
The data center’s reliance on fossil fuel-powered plants is another concern.
Entergy does have plans for renewable energy included in the project, including promises to work with Meta on wind and nuclear energy opportunities, but Entergy’s current ask is for the natural gas plants.
Advocates say they want to see real promises when it comes to sustainability.
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What are AI data centers? Here’s how the planned Meta facility in Louisiana could work, source
