The state of New York became the first state in the United States to formally suspend approval of a new large data centre. On 14 July, Governor Casey Khochul signed an executive order suspending the State's licensing of some new projects until the completion of the environmental review process.
50 MW or more restricted
This order applies to data centres of an installed size of 50 MW and above. The New York State Environmental Protection Office will no longer issue clearances for pending projects. According to the report, this decision could affect more than a dozen ongoing projects.
At the press conference, Khochul stated that technological developments could not be at the expense of higher electricity costs, water pressure and noise pollution. She also stressed that the data centre project would not be exempted from local zoning rules and local approval requirements.
The suspension is expected to last for one year
The State of New York expects that it will take approximately one year to complete the environmental review system for the data centre. In the meantime, the State Government is also considering requiring data centres to contribute to a special fund to support the grid, and is looking into limiting the continued access of mega-data centres to tax benefits.
Prior to the executive order, the New York State Council had promoted stricter restrictions. Last month, a bill was advanced to suspend the construction of a data centre of more than 20 MW for a period of one year; another, which is still under consideration by the Committee, proposes a three-year moratorium.
AI Push Project Volume
The average size of the data centres built over the past few years is usually less than 100 MW, but projects under development are becoming significantly larger. By 2030, Bloomberg's new energy finance projects that nearly a quarter of the new data centres will be larger than 500 MW, driven mainly by growth in AI investment.
As the volume of the project and the pace of construction increases, the problem of access to electricity grids, water resources and land in the data centres also generates more local opposition. According to the report, a recent poll indicated that about two thirds of respondents were concerned about higher electricity prices in data centres.
Or against the federal position.
New York State practice may also differ from the current orientation of the Trump Government. It was reported that the Trump Government has so far generally supported the construction of data centres. Last month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requested the power grid operator to study the creation of a fast-track link for data centres.
Additional information:At the state and federal levels in the United States, there has been much debate as to whether to suspend the new data centre. The State of New York was the first State to adopt a genuine landing-related measure; Maine had previously passed a similar bill, which was eventually rejected by the Governor.