Weld County Commissioner Scott James said last month that bringing data centers to his region would mean more tax dollars, wider roads and maybe even more investments into buildings just like the massive ballroom he was speaking in at Aims Community College in Greeley.
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“I think it truly is the future, so to speak,” he said of artificial intelligence and the data centers that power it. “I think we will solve a lot of the problems that we have today utilizing artificial intelligence correctly.”
James was mingling with business leaders at an energy conference. Earlier that same week, Global AI applied to build a data center on part of the hundreds of acres it purchased last year near Windsor.
“The true critical use is the improvement of public safety, the improvement of medicine, of technology,” he said of data centers. “I think that impacts every one of us.”
James is also using AI in his daily life. It’s streamlining his political blog, generating pictures and posting to social media.
“I've set up little AI infrastructures in my own little hobby life, and I have, quite frankly, I've enjoyed tinkering with it.”
He previously called data centers “critical infrastructure.”
Many of Weld County’s neighbors, including Larimer County, have temporarily banned the construction of largedata centers. But Weld is taking a different approach. Last month, commissioners voted to allow them inside industrial zones as long as they meet certain conditions, including noise limits.
James was the lone ‘no’ vote on the updated zoning rules, but not because he opposes data centers. He was pushing to require them to all use cooling systems that demand far less water.
“I think Weld County wants to be what we always are, a little bit on the forefront, but just finding a way to get to yes, finding a way to fit it into the fabric of our community,” he said.
Data centers exist around the country, and they do generate property taxes for the places they’re built in. But lots of the jobs they create are temporary.
For example, according to Global AI’s data center application that was filed in late April, the project is expected to have as many as 150 people on site a day during construction.
But after the data center is finished, the number of workers is projected to drop to as few as 18.
Then, there are environmental concerns over data centers.
Jeanette Rampone Gulder lives in Windsor, about two miles away from the proposed data center site. She said she has concerns about its potential noise, water usage and impacts on nearby wildlife on the Poudre River Trail.
“They make it sound like it's way out there, there's nobody there,” she said. “There’s a lot here. I’m really, really worried about the water. We’re already under a drought, and they take the Colorado River for so many things, and you can see how arid everything is.”
Large-scale data centers can use a massive amount of electricity and water. The World Resources Institute says the biggest ones use 5 million gallons a day to keep servers cool.
Weld County planning director David Eisenbraun said Friday that Global AI is proposing to use much less than that.
“Their intent is to use 100 some odd thousand gallons, a couple single family homes worth for their entirety,” he said. “It’s equivalent to a couple acre feet, not the thousands of acre feet needed for more open or evaporative cooling types.”
Documents show Windsor has been negotiating a pre-annexation agreement with Global AI for the data center site. Mayor Julie Cline wrote in a letter last month that the city “is able and willing to provide municipal water service to the property, conditioned upon execution of the pre-annexation agreement.”
Eisenbraun added that under the plans submitted so far to the county, the old Kodak campus will look largely the same after the data center moves in.
“There’s no proposed exterior modifications we’re aware of at this time,” he said. “We hope it’s going to be great for the county as a whole and the residents within.”
The application states Global AI has plans for a “future data center build within the building.”
A site plan shows several phases.
Despite her concerns about adding a data center near her community, Gulder does use AI powered by data centers. It’s helping her edit a book she’s writing.
“I’m old but I’m not that scared of AI," she said. “It's something that can be very useful and exciting.”
County officials are currently reviewing Global AI’s planning application.
A noise study included in the planning documents states that “significant noise mitigations, operational controls, and/or a different approach to locating equipment will be necessary for the chillers on the west side of the property to avoid major exceedances of 50 (decibels) at nearby residential/ commercial/mixed-use zones.”
The study continues, “there is a potential for the adjacent industrial property to the south to experience noise levels greater than the 75 dBA night time limit when chillers are operating at 100% load. This may need to be addressed with mitigation or fan controls limiting normal operating conditions maximum fan speed during night time hours.”
Global AI did not respond to an interview request from KUNC News about its plans in Weld County.
An online petition against data centers created by Windsor residents and other Weld County communities has garnered more than 700 signatures.
It calls for environmental impact assessments of data centers, limits on water use and noise, transparency from developers and “guarantees that long-term costs won’t fall on the community.”
Meanwhile, state lawmakers are at an impasse over how to respond to the data center boom.
Democrats unveiled dueling proposals this legislative session. One bill would have tried to lure more large-scale data centers to Colorado with tax incentives.
Another aimed to put tighter environmental guardrails on them.
Both bills were tabled.
This story is part of a KUNC series looking at artificial intelligence in Northern Colorado. Read about AI in classrooms.
