Earlier this month, a QTS-built data center in Fayette County was draining an additional 30 million gallons of water for months without penalty. Headlines like this constantly pop up across the country, leaving people unsure about the impact of data centers on their communities.
With a strong plurality of Georgia voters (47 percent) opposing the construction of data centers, it is time to ask where resources should be allocated.
Atlanta’s Emerging Data Center Market
Data centers have been around for roughly 80 years, whereas modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Language Learning Models (LLMs) have not. AI is deployed across the world, providing incredible benefits to local communities. For instance, as the electricity grid diversifies its energy sources to include nuclear, renewable, and conventional sources, AI can help overcome operational challenges. On a more local scale, AI currently allows the city of Atlanta to identify and fix water leaks more effectively.
Despite these benefits of AI, there are trade-offs. Concerns remain that large AI models threaten job security, destroy data privacy and require massive computational power.
With Atlanta emerging as the world’s second-largest data center market, understanding the pros and cons of these energy-intensive units is top of mind for local and statewide policymakers. This rapid expansion is not a faraway concept; it is unfolding now across the Metro Atlanta area.
To fully understand the issue locally, it is important to understand how many of these projects are complete, how many are underway, and how many are planned.
As of late 2025, Atlanta has an estimated 150 to 220 operational, 32 under construction and at least 50 planned data centers in the region. The largest operational data center is Microsoft’s Fairwater 2 facility, that requires 300 megawatts of power.
During an interview with Shan Arora, Director of the Kendeda Building at Georgia Tech, he discussed some pros and cons of data centers. One benefit of data centers is their ability to keep consumers of cloud data engaged online. Arora also mentioned that “another bright spot of data centers is… maybe [they] will spark another energy revolution” by potentially becoming reliable buyers of hydrogen energy.
When discussing the cons of data centers, Arora emphasized that “data centers aren’t the problem; the speed at which data centers are coming online is a problem.”
The Environmental and Financial Trade-Offs
This rapid growth in data centers to meet the data demands of modern AI creates negative externalities that local communities face. For instance, the energy demand for new data centers across the state led Georgia Power to halt its efforts to shift away from coal-fired plants. When burning coal, dangerous chemicals like mercury and sulfur dioxide, which can trigger illnesses like asthma, are released. According to data from the Environmental Protection Agency and analysis from the New York Times, a 9 percent increase in mercury emissions from 2024 to 2025 likely resulted from rising energy demand from data centers.
Beyond environmental degradation, how do data centers impact Atlanta’s local economy and affect energy costs?
Atlanta City Councilmember Bakhtiari currently sits on the Zoning Committee and the City Utilities Committee, positioning her as a strong voice in environmental and energy resilience. As she noted, one economic concern afflicting the city is a growing energy burden.
Energy burden is the percentage of a household’s income spent on utility bills. As the average price of electricity has gone up in Atlanta, over 28 percent of households have developed a high energy burden, with Black and Hispanic households being disproportionately affected.
According to Christopher Knittel, Associate Dean of Climate and Sustainability at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, prioritizing large-scale renewable energy sources can decrease the financial burden on households over time.
“Energy generated by large-scale solar plants, for example, comes with lower transmission, distribution, and maintenance costs for utilities, and these efficiencies can be passed on to the consumer,” Knittel told the MIT Office of Communications in March.
This relates to Councilmember Bakhtiari’s definition of sustainability.”Sustainability looks like more of a dependency on green energy,” which she notes has surpassed the fossil fuels industry in the number of jobs it provides.
With this in mind, if cities used more renewable energy sources, they could develop a more resilient, affordable, and stable energy grid.
Sustainability and Atlanta’s Future
Atlanta stands at a crossroads for what AI and data center investment will look like in the future. In a community discussion on May 21 hosted by the Ke’nekt Cooperative, there was heavy discussion on city investment in sustainability efforts.
Chandra Farley, the Chief Sustainability Officer of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience (OSR), expressed concerns about where Atlanta currently sits. “Here in Atlanta… we are in the top three to five in the country when it comes to energy burden.”
Farley also mentioned that OSR operates with an incredibly limited staffing budget of $600,000 and an operating budget of $100,000. While officials like Chandra Farley face an uphill battle to make Atlanta more sustainable and equitable, the rapid expansion of data centers directly affects utility prices and resource sustainability. This presents the key question communities need to ask themselves: Is it worth it?
What Now?
While the pros and cons and opinions of others predominate this article, learning more about AI, data centers and their impact on your local community is crucial. As Councilmember Bakhtiari emphasized, “The reality is those [local] folks have to be in the room. They have to be seen.”
Some ways to get involved include attending local utility committee meetings, providing public comment at neighborhood council meetings, following local news outlets, showing up at Climate Resilience Advisory Board meetings, and learning about what different levels of government can and cannot do.
As Arora mentioned, “Atlanta needs to be innovative. We are a city of truly shaking the status quo.”
Kendall Brown is a PIN Summer intern for Atlanta Way 2.0 & SaportaReport, exploring the intersection of civic engagement and civic journalism. He is a SR at GA Tech with an interest in policy. Make sure to subscribe to keep up with all of his articles this summer.
