Data centers seem to be popping up everywhere, with big tech companies proposing to build them on farmland, old golf courses, downtowns and industrial parks.

Many of the proposed developments are huge and expensive. If built, they could use enough power to reshape our electricity grid.

Read more about the basics of data centers below.

What is a data center?

Data centers are basically warehouses of computer systems. They house network equipment, power and cooling systems.

They have existed for decades to power the internet. As our use of online tools expands wildly with the advent of artificial intelligence, so does the demand for data.

Analyses by McKinsey & Company, a global consulting firm, predict there will be roughly $7 trillion in land and property investments for data center

See Full Page