Data Centers, Water, and Energy: Considerations for Local Government Decision-making in Southeast Minnesota

This toolkit is designed for officials and staff in local governments (for example, council members, county boards, and planning staff) in the Southeast region of Minnesota seeking to understand and consider responses to energy and water use in data centers. The focus is to provide information about key considerations for local decisionmakers who are interested in proactively addressing data center impacts on water and energy systems. Our goal with this toolkit is not to tell anyone what to think about data centers but to help provide sufficient background on key issues that help local decisionmakers consider how to think about data centers, particularly hyperscale or very large data centers, in relation to energy and water considerations. The information in this toolkit covers a range of factors central to energy and water considerations, and connects these to how local officials can approach asking questions about data centers and responding to potential data center development in local plans and codes.