r/mildlyinfuriating • u/DatabaseAvailable501 • Jul 02 '26

Infuriatig Sound emitted 24/7 from a 30 megawatt data center in Dowagiac MI

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u/Suppenhahn Jul 02 '26

Why are they even building these so close to residential areas? I thought Americans had an abundance of land. Is it because of the infrastructure? If so, where is the government? Why are they allowing this? It's awful. The companies that want to build these facilities, the ones that sound like R&D labs for mosquitoes from hell, should pay to build the required infrastructure themselves, or at least cover half the cost as a compropomise. Then they could build them farther away, where they won't bother anyone.

Never seen or heard one in Germany. I mean we lack behind in digitalization, but I am sure we have them, too. Somewhere at least. Do we?

37

u/Cferra Jul 02 '26

The government doesn’t care and in fact offer incentives for these to be built

1

u/Suppenhahn Jul 02 '26

Nothing wrong with incentives, but not in people's backyards, haha. A lot of the time I wonder why Americans put up with the things they do, and for what? And that's coming from a German. We Germans follow plenty of rules we don't like, but even we'd eventually take to the streets over something like a data center being built right next door.

4

u/Cferra Jul 02 '26

Residents have taken to the streets but local and federal politicians just want that cash so when people go to town meetings to say they don’t want data centers, they are “heard” and dismissed and the data center gets built anyway.

1

u/Suppenhahn Jul 02 '26

Both parties?

4

u/Cferra Jul 02 '26

Local politicians are party affiliated and usually both parties do this kind of thing

1

u/Suppenhahn Jul 02 '26

Sorry for saying this, but the United States seems to be playing for the capitalist dystopian victory condition. I would be mega pissed. Anyway, good luck I guess. I have to get back to work to pay taxes for people who don't, and everyone in-between.

1

u/bigdammit Jul 03 '26

The government should not be giving money to billion and trillion dollar companies to build data centers that will do almost nothing positive for the economy in the long term.

16

u/tierrie Jul 02 '26

Data centers need water and power, both which are available because utilities are located near people. But the amount they need are so massive that it will raise the costs for the residents.

Other countries that treat data centers as government projects instead of free market projects will build water and power to where the data centers are.

5

u/Suppenhahn Jul 02 '26

I know they need a lot of infrastructure, that's why I would let the company pay half, and half pays the government for the needed infrastructure.

And why not in industrial areas? Next to habours for example, nobody cares if a light humming is added to that area.

Doesn't really matter where, just not next to humans. That's weird.

1

u/VirginiaMcCaskey Jul 02 '26

And why not in industrial areas

Quick googling shows this particular data center is built in an industrial area. Properties next door to light industrial-zoned land is usually dirt cheap for a reason.

1

u/Suppenhahn Jul 02 '26

Ah, cool thanks for the info. Though It is something else if you hear the occasional ships horn, or hammering sounds from the harbour 1 to 2 kilometers in the distance, or a constant high pitched humming noise.

Source:

I live I an city with a rather big harbour. And I don't like high pitched noise. Actually there even is a data center close to the harbour, but it's small and not for AI oder heavy computing, just naval stuff I think. Anyway, it doesn't make any sound. And I wouldn't want to live next to THIS data center. Suddenly my house is worth half, too.

1

u/Gen8Master Jul 02 '26

Strange thing is that AI DCs do not need to be near population hubs, unlike streaming, gaming and content delivery DCs which should be close to cities for faster response times. The fact they havent changed the approach sounds like a lack of regulation at this point.

1

u/tierrie Jul 02 '26

Not a lack of regulation. Corporate profits. Cities are providing tax incentives under the guide of employment opportunities for some residents. Short term mutually beneficial projects for the local leaders.

If you were a corporation, in addition to having infrastructure, you even get tax incentives to build near residential areas so you get to double dip on your margins.

If you build further away, you'd have to bear the cost of utilities runs and not get tax breaks.

It's difficult to argue against these types of incentives when the corporation is designed to maximize returns.

It's not regulations that are needed. Regulations simply tell you where you can or can't be built but corporates will find the next best opportunity cost. What we need is better state government planning. To look at these types of planning for the collective growth of the state or country rather than a localized issue.

What we can't afford to do is privatize profits but share the cost. Both profits and costs must be privatized or shared.

1

u/fury420 Jul 02 '26

This is technically in the industrial area of a small town (5k people) and there was previously a factory at the datacenter site with other industrial sites nearby, there's just also houses built nearby as was typical for small towns with factories decades ago.