The little data center that shouldn’t
City planners are considering whether a micro (for now) data center should be built in East Concord. To cool computer processors, data centers use a combination of water and electricity. The proposed center is a closed-loop system which should save on water but will require more electricity. New Hampshire has some of the highest electric rates in the country. Over the last six years East Concord residents have endured two multi-day electric outages in the dead of winter. Attaching a data center to our expensive and creaky electrical grid isn’t going to improve things for current East Concord residents.
This new data center will have to compete with gigantic data centers already under construction. There are a lot of issues surrounding these mega-monsters, but the reality is they are going up and will be serving customers before the ground is broken on the East Concord data center. This project is the equivalent of thinking about building a one-room convenience store next to the Wal-Mart Megastore opening next month.
On top of that, this data center will sit between two conservation sites, Locke Wetlands and Estes Forest. Approving this center will be starting a 10- to 20-year countdown to the next Steeplegate Mall reclamation project, right in the middle of what is supposed to be protected land.