A proposal to turn a 200,000-square-foot business park into a large-scale data center may be revived in Nottingham, New Hampshire, despite local moves to block such projects.
What's happening?
According to the Portsmouth Herald, developer Tom Moulton, who pulled his initial plans for the data center just hours before a public meeting and a wave of public scrutiny, has not fully committed to canceling the project.
"If our research shows that it makes sense to do, I would reintroduce it, so that's still to be determined," Moulton said, as reported by the local news outlet.
Meanwhile, area officials are weighing a moratorium on similar projects while they review regulations and study possible impacts.
Communities across the country are confronting similar debates as the infrastructure that powers artificial intelligence expands, raising questions about where large data centers should be built and how much input residents should have.
In Nottingham, the conversation appears to be extending beyond a single project and shifting toward a broader question of whether the town is prepared for facilities capable of reshaping land use, water use, infrastructure needs, and utility demands.
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Why does it matter?
Data center development is increasingly tied to the AI boom, and its local footprint can be much larger than many residents expect.
These facilities can require enormous amounts of electricity to power servers, along with significant water use for cooling. That has raised concerns about strain on the grid, pressure on natural resources, and potential effects on household energy costs.
For towns, those pressures can translate into difficult questions about zoning, noise, traffic, tax revenue, and environmental tradeoffs.
AI may benefit society in some meaningful ways, including improving weather forecasting, streamlining transportation, and optimizing clean energy systems to use wind and solar power more efficiently.
However, the rapid buildout needed to support AI also brings risks, including high energy and water consumption, cybersecurity concerns, misuse, and unintended consequences such as higher utility bills, added strain on aging infrastructure — and impacts on the workforce, education, and society more broadly.
Decisions about where data centers are built can influence how quickly the new technology grows — and who ends up bearing the costs.
What are people saying?
By leaving open the possibility of bringing the plan back, the developer has signaled that the initial withdrawal may not be the end of the proposal.
Since then, the Portsmouth Herald reported, people have been organizing a grassroots effort to oppose large-scale data developments in the state.
At a meeting in June, over 40 people from 10 communities met to express concerns about rising energy costs and water usage.
"We have only our own water," said Annette Sell, a Nottingham resident, as reported by the Herald. "It's in the ground. That's our own resources. We live off the land."
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