A recent video from More Perfect Union draws attention to the hidden costs of big-tech infrastructure, and it raises some familiar questions for Colorado. The report follows residents in rural Georgia who live just a few hundred yards from a Meta data center. What they describe sounds less like progress and more like intrusion: the constant hum of cooling systems, light pollution that turns night into dusk, and higher utility bills they never agreed to pay.
Closer to home, Aurora’s massive QTS data center is poised to become one of Xcel Energy’s largest customers, drawing roughly 160 megawatts, enough to power tens of thousands of homes. That kind of demand doesn’t exist in isolation. Every new substation, high-voltage line, or water-cooling system ripples outward through our shared infrastructure. When costs rise, they don’t rise for QTS alone; they rise for everyone on the grid.
Adding to the complexity, large projects like this often secure “economic development” rates or tax incentives not available to ordinary residents. While those deals may bring in property-tax revenue, the long-term math can tilt against ratepayers who shoulder higher energy or water prices to support corporate growth. And on the environmental side, even “water-efficient” cooling systems add up in a semi-arid state already facing long-term scarcity.
None of this is to say that data centers have no place in Colorado. They bring investment and jobs, and power the digital tools our economy depends on. But if the More Perfect Union report teaches us anything, it’s that transparency matters. Communities deserve a clear accounting of who benefits, who pays, and how the costs, including noise, light, energy, and water, are distributed.
When the cloud comes to town, it shouldn’t leave its neighbors in the dark.
More Perfect Union. (2025, March 27). I live 400 yards from Mark Zuckerberg’s massive data center [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGjj7wDYaiI
