First, what is a data centre? It's simple, it's a large array of computers with very powerful graphic cards. If you have a computer for gaming (or your son has one), you know that they run hot, and need a lot of cooling.
So the first thing is that data centers need a lot of cooling, it can be open or closed, but in either case data centers need a lot of water – because in 99% of cases water cooling is the best solution. The next thing is that data centers need energy, a lot of energy, first to run their graphic cards but also to cool the cards. Right now the ONLY solution is the grid, there is no other solution. You could build a coal plant next to a data centre, but the fundamentals are the same, data centers are large energy consumers, full stop. There have been "stories" about nuclear reactors for data centres, but the world is at least a decade away from such a thing happening.
Data centers are ubiquitous, far more than people believe – all emails, all cloud storage for one. But also companies have moved their "computational requirements" away from their own machines to data centers, not only is it more economical it is safer and easily expandable. So data centers are not only for AI, but also for large language models (aka artificial intelligence).
A lot of the criticism about data centers is justified, yes they increase the cost of energy locally, yes there has been a strong trend to "buy-off" local elected officials to grease the wheels of progress. Some of the criticisms are also false, they are noisy (yes the old one which was air cooled). Solar and wind energy is not the answer, it will never be the answer because data centres need energy 24/7. Some of the criticisms are also self-serving, the "green movement" is against anything that will lead to an increase in fossil fuel consumption, and data centres do increase that demand, but it also "relocated" the demand. In the past, companies and universities would own their own computational power – no more. In short, data centres are here to stay because they meet a real societal need.
However, there are other things that are true, first graphic cards don't last forever, especially when they are running 24/7. The estimated life cycle of a graphic card is between 60 and 72 months. Which brings another problem, the end of globalization. The construction of a chip includes nearly 9,000 steps, with something like 2,000 companies that are "single providers" across the world. Nevermind the invasion of Taiwan (step 8,800 out of 9,000), there are so many other places where the system can break down.
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