Data centres power the contemporary digital world. These centres receive, store, and process vast amounts of digital information via networked computers, storage drives, servers, and other technology. Without data centres, many of which operate 24/7, the Internet, email, streaming video, and the online sector in general would be hobbled.
Data centres are not a new phenomenon, but date back to the mid-1940s and the dawn of the computer era. For decades, few people paid much attention to data centres: there weren’t many of them, and they weren’t particularly large.
The rapid advancement and widespread adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) drastically changed this landscape. In recent years, AI has become increasingly popular for research, creative endeavours, and everyday applications. Extensive computing power is required to train or simply use AI models, fueling demand for additional data centre capacity.
As of May 2026, there were 5,427 data centres in the United States and roughly 337 in Canada, estimates the Canadian online news source EnergyNow.ca. Virginia, Texas, and California house the highest number of currently operating data centres in the U.S. There can be discrepancies in the number of data centres, depending on how the term is defined.
Data centre growth, however, might have hit a roadblock. “Only about 50 to 60 percent of data centre capacity scheduled for the next one to two years is expected to come online on time amid delays and cancellations,” reported Goldman Sachs Commodities Research on May 20, 2026.
This is due to a variety of factors, including supply chain issues, trade battles with China, labour shortages, lack of electrical capacity, and local opposition. Regarding the latter, some communities view data centres as a boon to their economy, while others seek to ban such sites due to excessive water, land, and electricity use.
Data centres vary widely in size, with some sites small enough to fit onto a tennis court and others reaching colossal proportions. The campus of the Meta Prineville Data Center in Oregon sprawls over 4.6 million square feet, while the Switch Tahoe Reno 1 site in Nevada features a building nearly 1.3 million square feet in size. The latter is considered among the largest data centre buildings in the U.S. Even larger sites are planned within North America.
Just as they vary in size, data centres also vary in function. As the article What Is a Data Center and Why Are They Suddenly Everywhere? posted July 9, 2026, on Forbes.com explains, most data centres fall into the following categories:
Enterprise Data Centres are constructed, owned, and controlled by one organization, be it a hospital, bank, or any company that maintains sensitive data that needs to be securely stored. Such centres don’t come in a single size but are frequently small and found on the property of the organization that runs them. Often, they aren’t very noticeable and blend in with the surrounding buildings.
Colocation Data Centres are larger sites that rent space to multiple clients who provide their own servers. Such centres appeal to businesses and organizations that want high-level computer services without the cost of building and maintaining their own on-site facilities.
Hyperscale Data Centres are the bull elephants of data centres, comprising hundreds of thousands, even millions, of square feet, and packed with equipment. Such sites handle data for AI and cloud storage and are frequently run by huge corporations such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. These are the centres that typically raise hackles among critics.
Cloud Data Centres “deliver computing as an on-demand service,” explains Forbes.com. Clients don’t own their hardware but rent servers, software, and other equipment, paying only for the services and gear they use.
Edge Data Centres are relatively small, highly focused, and situated close to the clients who use them. Such specialized sites appeal to online service providers, such as live streaming or gaming platforms, that want to avoid the delays or glitches that can occur when data is sent to a distant data centre.
There is considerable overlap between these categories, adds Forbes.com.
All data centres, regardless of size and function, use microchips to store and process data. These components, in turn, consume electricity and generate heat, especially when used in large quantities around the clock. As such, cooling is a vital part of data centre operations. Some data centres use cooling towers filled with water for this purpose rather than more expensive air conditioning units. Unfortunately, water in these cooling towers tends to evaporate, requiring a constant inflow of fresh water. According to the Massachusetts-based Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the largest data centres can guzzle upwards of five million gallons of water a day, straining regional water resources.
Electrical demands are equally staggering. While a conventionally sized data centre might draw about 10 to 25 megawatts (MW) of electricity at any given time, its larger counterparts can require more than 100 MW, states the recent report Energy and AI by the International Energy Agency (IEA). To put this in perspective, 100 MW is sufficient to power roughly 100,000 households.
Increased electricity demand can generate more carbon emissions if a fossil-fuel-driven power source is used. Some data centres, for example, use diesel generators to help power their operations. In addition, hyperscale data centres need lots of space, sometimes amounting to hundreds of acres, and can produce a significant amount of noise in the form of a constant, loud hum. For these reasons, opposition to data centres is on the rise across North America.
In late July of this year, for example, the city council of Mississauga, Ontario, unanimously approved a motion directing staff to prepare an Interim Control By-law (ICBL) that could pause approvals of new digital infrastructure construction projects, including data centres. The pause would last one year. The motion was introduced following concerns from residents about a proposed data centre site.
As of mid-summer 2026, some 15 U.S. states, including Georgia, Michigan, and Minnesota, had considered or were debating moratoriums delaying or banning data centre construction, reports the Brookings Institution. While some of these moratoriums failed to pass, data centres have become a hot-button political issue.
Not every community opposes data centres, however. Northern Virginia, for example, now hosts over 300 operational data centres and has been dubbed “the data centre capital of the world.” For the state, the benefits appear to outweigh the harms. In 2025, data centres “generated nearly $40 billion in total economic impact statewide,” supported over 110,000 Virginia jobs, and contributed more than $1.5 billion in annual state tax revenue, notes a March 3, 2026, press release from the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC).
Going forward, the popularity of AI shows no sign of abating, even as construction of new data centres hits roadblocks. Goldman Sachs estimates that power demand at American data centres will more than double, from 31 gigawatts (GW) in 2025 to 66 GW by 2027.
Building better data centres seems to be the best path forward. To this end, the U.S. government’s ENERGY STAR program offers a list of “16 More Ways to Cut Energy Waste in the Data Center” on its website. Recommendations include consolidating lightly used servers and removing unnecessary hardware; implementing better data storage techniques (“Deduplication software… can reduce the amount of data stored at many organizations by more than 95 percent,” states the list); managing airflow for greater cooling efficiency; implementing server energy-saving modes; and adding sensors to HVAC systems to raise or lower airflow depending on demand.
Plexiglass curtains can prevent cold air inside data centres from mixing with hot air, reducing cooling costs, while air-side economizers can draw in outside air in an inexpensive fashion. High-efficiency Power Distribution Units (PDUs) can also reduce electrical use, adds ENERGY STAR.
Water demand can be reduced through closed-loop water networks (which admittedly require more electricity) or through immersion cooling. In the latter process, “servers are submerged in a bath of liquid, such as a synthetic oil, that conducts heat but not electricity. Immersion cooling allows for a denser installation of servers as well, but is not yet widely used, largely due to cost,” explains the October 17, 2025, paper Data Drain: The Land and Water Impacts of the AI Boom by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Location can also play a role in making data centres more palatable, particularly when facilities are situated where adequate electrical, water, and other infrastructure is already available and where their impacts on surrounding communities can be minimized. Similarly, using renewable energy sources to generate electricity for data centres would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help align the rapid expansion of digital infrastructure with broader environmental goals.
These methods can be costly, and there is no single solution capable of addressing every challenge associated with data centre development. As demand for AI, cloud computing, streaming, and other digital services continues to grow, however, simply building more facilities is unlikely to be enough. The industry will increasingly need to consider how those facilities are designed, powered, cooled, located, and integrated into the communities around them. Greater efficiency, more responsible resource use, and continued investment in new technologies could help reduce the environmental footprint of an industry that has become fundamental to modern life.
