New Hampshire had always seemed like a secluded corner of the country to Natalie Hilts, insulated from the threats that afflicted other regions.
That was before ICE proposed to convert an empty warehouse in Merrimack into a processing center, plans which were abandoned by the Department of Homeland Security in February. Then came what Hilts views as a scourge of unwelcome data center proposals in Nottingham, in Bow and, now, a “micro data center” envisioned for a persistently vacant lot in East Concord.
On Wednesday, Hilts, who lives about two miles from the parcel at 52 Locke Road, led a small contingent of four dissenters at a meeting of the city’s planning board, which voted to set in motion the next stage of the development process by scheduling a public hearing for October 21.
Absent a window of opportunity for public comment, she sat in the second row from the back of City Council chambers, communicating with the distressed shake of her head and with a sign that read simply and clearly: “NO DATA CENTER HERE.”
“When they’re saying ‘micro,’ well, what does that really mean? You know, small dogs still bite,” Hilts said in an interview. “It doesn’t really matter the scale. These data centers, regardless, are still going to have an impact. It’s moving too fast. We need better understanding, better regulations. All they want is profit.”
Data centers have garnered widespread opposition from Americans of every political stripe, eliciting resistance and concern over their environmental detriments and drain on the energy grid. Earlier this month, Gov. Kelly Ayotte said she would support a multiyear moratorium on new data centers in New Hampshire, and that she would seek to formalize a ban in the state’s next budget, which would go into effect in July 2027.
There are currently ten data centers in New Hampshire, four of which are clustered in Manchester, according to the tracking platform Data Center Map.
Public documents illustrate the center envisioned for Locke Road from Northpoint Engineering and landowner Granite Municipal Manufacturing & Sales, LLC: An 8,160-square-foot building would house a “micro-data center, office, garage and single residential caretaker unit,” according to the project narrative.
Of that footprint, approximately 7,220 square feet would be utilized as data center space.
Northpoint describes the micro data center’s cooling process as fundamentally different from that of large Artificial Intelligence data centers, which can draw up to five million gallons of water per day, equivalent to the water usage of a town of 10 to 50 million residents. The Concord facility would utilize a “single-phase immersion cooling technology” to capture heat and reuse or dissipate it through heat exchangers.
South End resident Mila Paul’s view of data centers allows for more nuance.
Many of her friends and family have casually adopted AI in their daily lives, and she’s come to believe that the dizzying pace of technological advancement will soon outpace large data centers and render them obsolete. The future, she theorizes, might look far more decentralized, with micro data centers proliferating across the country to keep up with the increasing demand for computing power.
“It sounds more efficient, more economical, more ecologically safe — a better way,” she said. “Small individual units rather than hulking buildings, like malls.”
Even so, a forestry technician by trade, Paul said the news that this imagined future could arrive so soon, not to mention in her own city, left her “horrified.”
She questioned the timing of the proposal, going before the planning board just weeks after the governor’s endorsement of a moratorium. At best, she said, the proposal “to me looked like a stupid mistake.” Then, she considered that, as recently as June, Northpoint and Granite Municipal were seeking planning board approval to convert 52 Locke Road into a wholly different development: four distinct buildings, three of them housing ground-level flex industrial bays and three stories of storage space.
“That pattern is: They’re trying to make a buck,” Paul said. Remembering that, last year, more than 50,000 square feet of wetland buffer were cleared as the land was prepared for development, she added: “Clearly, the land is ready for something. I’m a dreamer, so I say bring the trees back.”
Hilts has lived in Concord for 30 years. She said she cares for the environment and showed up Wednesday night as a “concerned citizen,” a familiar outfit for someone who regularly contacts her elected representatives and demonstrates for progressive causes through NH 5051 and the Bridge Brigade.
Of the four data center-mindful, Hilts was the only community member to tote a sign. She stood outside on Green Street afterward, a pink button depicting Lady Liberty pinned to her denim jacket.
“I see some people around me not willing to do anything, to risk or discomfort themselves. So, I will hold a sign and hope that creates room for people to speak up,” she said. “A lot of people think it’s inevitable. We all appreciate technology and the ease of use, but there’s a lot we don’t know. It’s scary, and more needs to be known about it.”
