Hearing On Data Centers Bill Scheduled For Next Week

It’s sponsored by Frederick County Senator Karen Lewis Young..Maryland State HouseAnnapolis, Md (KM) Two bills  before the Maryland House and Senate deal with data centers. The legislation in the Senate is sponsored by Frederick County Senator Karen Lewis Young, and it calls for a study to be conducted on data centers, and how they impact such issues as energy use.”Where do we get the energy? How much energy is actually used by data centers? We know it’s enormous. How will that impact our rate payers, who may have to subsidize transmission that’s needed,” Lewis Young asks.She says the study will also look at how data centers impact the environment, and what long term or short term affects they may have on the economy. “What are the environmental consequences of a lot of data centers in our community” is  a question posed by Senator Lewis Young.A hearing on this bill is scheduled for Thursday, February 13th at before the Senate Committee on Education, Energy and the Environment beginning at 1:00 PM.  A similar bill is making its way through the House of Delegates.Data centers contain computing machines and server systems which are needed for cloud-based services. They require lots of electricity to stay online 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They also need  a large amount of water to cool their equipment. The facility also requires backup generators in case of a power outage.A data center is under construction at the former Eastalco site in Adamstown in Frederick County which was once the location of an aluminum smelting plant.    It will be known as Quantum Frederick which will be connected to  data centers in Loudon County, Virginia by a 40-mile long fiber optic  ring called the QLoop.By Kevin McManus