Amazon drops secrecy deals as data centre backlash grows

Amazon says it no longer asks local government officials to sign non-disclosure agreements about its data centre projects, as opposition to the huge buildings that power artificial intelligence grows in the United States.

Matt Garman, chief executive of Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud computing business, said: "We no longer use nondisclosure agreements with the government agencies we work with on our projects."

The backlash

Communities across the United States have been campaigning against new data centres. More than 100 local moratoriums, temporary bans on new developments, are being considered, and New York has introduced a one-year moratorium on permits for large data centres.

The environmental campaigner Erin Brockovich said the number one complaint she hears about data centres is a lack of transparency, with projects often announced only after permits have been granted.

Non-disclosure agreements with local officials had meant that neighbours could not find out about planned developments until they were approved.

Water and power

Data centres need large amounts of electricity to run their computers and keep them cool, and many use water for cooling.

Mr Garman said direct water use by data centres accounted for only 0.5 per cent of industrial water use in the United States. Critics say that figure ignores the water used to generate the electricity that data centres consume and to manufacture computer chips.

An independent watchdog found that data centres were the main cause of a 76 per cent rise in a key electricity price on the largest power grid in the United States. A planned Amazon data centre in Texas has a permit allowing it to release more carbon dioxide each year than any power plant in the country, according to critics.

Mr Garman said backup generators at Amazon's sites typically run for around ten hours a year, and that the company had contributed more than one billion dollars to communities with data centres over three years.

Why so many data centres?

The boom in artificial intelligence has driven an unprecedented wave of data centre building. Training and running large AI models requires enormous computing power, and technology companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on new facilities.

Data centres in the UK

The UK Government has designated data centres as critical national infrastructure and has created AI Growth Zones to speed up the building of new facilities, with faster planning decisions and better access to power. Several large projects have been announced across the country.

Concerns about electricity and water supply have also been raised in Britain, where some areas already face delays in connecting new projects to the grid. Water companies have warned that data centres could add to pressure on supplies during droughts like the one affecting much of England this year.

What it means locally

Any large data centre proposed in or around Birmingham would need planning permission, giving residents the chance to comment on issues such as noise, traffic, energy and water use.

Transparency

Campaigners say early, open consultation is the best way to build trust. Amazon's decision to drop non-disclosure agreements may put pressure on other technology companies to do the same.

Greener data centres?

Technology companies say they are investing in renewable energy and more efficient cooling to reduce the environmental impact of their data centres, and some are reusing waste heat to warm nearby homes and swimming pools. Critics say the pace of growth means overall energy demand is still rising sharply.