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Nashville's local news and NPR station
There’s a new gold rush underway, and this time it’s about computing power. All across Tennessee — and the nation — developers are proposing and building major data centers.
Some officials are touting the potential economic benefits of the projects. Many residents are packing local meetings throughout the region to push back.
Each week through Sept. 8, the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom and its seven member stations will bring you a new story about how data centers impact our electricity grid, environment and communities.
A 2016 federal report found data centers account for nearly 2% of the entire country’s energy usage. But the company says this will be among the most technologically advanced of its 17 centers worldwide, using more renewable energy and far less water.
The Tennessee Valley Authority says Murfreesboro and Tullahoma are among a dozen cities across the Southeast that would be good sites for new data centers.
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