While the functions data centers perform are essential to daily life in so many ways, in regions around the country, they are under growing public pressure. Across the nation and across party lines, communities are pushing back against permitting and construction, including centers badly needed to house the computing power for data, phones, computers, and artificial intelligence.
Some of the main flashpoints fueling opposition include their perceived excessive use of resources, including electricity and water. Communities are increasingly asking how these facilities can grow without overwhelming resources and the livability of regions.
To address the concerns, the HVAC specialty construction industry associations and their engineering allies have promoted boosting data center energy and water efficiency as the most promising and readily available solutions that return value to regions through conservation, employment, business expansion, and greater tax revenues.
The pressure on electric grids and electric rates for all ratepayers is a major issue for digital infrastructure and top of mind for local communities. That is why some states are incentivizing data centers to generate their own power rather than relying entirely on the public grid. For example, West Virginia is a standout by encouraging data centers to relocate to the state, but also to generate their own power through highly efficient energy and water system-based microgrids.
A microgrid is a self-contained energy production system that can generate, store, and distribute electricity for a specific site, such as a hospital. For data centers, microgrids can reduce pressure on the public grid, provide backup power during emergencies, and make it easier to integrate cleaner sources of energy, such as with the use of solar panels.
Another area of energy innovation is the use of hydrogen fuel cells to support both the facility and the wider region. In 2024, Caterpillar, Microsoft, and Ballard Power Systems demonstrated the viability of using hydrogen fuel cells to supply backup power for data centers with no carbon emissions, unlike diesel or natural gas generators.
A hydrogen fuel cell converts hydrogen and oxygen into electricity. Conventional batteries require recharging, but a hydrogen fuel cell continuously generates power, producing only water and heat as byproducts. At scale, it points toward a future in which data centers use emission-free, on-site energy production and contribute to local emergency preparedness.
The push for greater on-site energy generation is catching on nationally. The Bloom Energy 2025 Data Center Power Report found that data center operators expect 30% of data centers to use on-site power as a primary energy source by 2030, more than double the percentage projected less than a year earlier.
Even without the advent of data centers, water use is a major concern in regions susceptible to drought. Data centers may add to the strain in stressed regions because many use water to dissipate heat generated by the servers and other equipment. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that U.S. data centers directly consumed about 5.5 billion gallons of water in 2014, with consumption surging to over 17 billion gallons in 2023.
Big tech is throwing a lot of brain power at the problem. Microsoft announced in 2024 that its new data center design will incorporate advanced computer chips and servers that don’t need to be cooled by water. Instead, they recirculate the same coolant in a closed-loop system. Meta said that its new data centers will take a similar approach.
Microsoft estimates that these types of cooling systems can lower its water consumption by more than 33 million gallons of water per year at each facility.
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Data centers underpin broad swaths of the nation’s economy and basic functioning, including everyday computer networks, commercial operations, and national security. Communities are insisting on a broad vision of smarter construction and engineering codes and standards for data centers. And data center owners are responding.
With a path forward that maximizes energy and water efficiency, all sides stand to benefit.
Frank Wall is the CEO of the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association, based in Chantilly, Virginia.