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Jack Stevens

Micro-Grids Make Sense for Indian Nations

Controversies in non-Indian communities over development of data centers hold some lessons for Indian Country energy development.


Data centers use lots of electricity and enormous amounts of water for cooling. Often, this necessitates expansion of high voltage power lines, which pose aesthetic, environmental, and budgetary issues, and the importation of carbon-based electricity.


That is why our attention was drawn recently to a proposed 362-acre data center in Leesburg Virginia that will operate completely off the grid. As envisioned, in fact, it will produce enough surplus power to feed back into the grid.


The developer plans to power the site with “natural gas-powered hydrogen fuel cells that generate electricity without combustion, creating a low- or zero-emissions micro-grid,” and use a battery system for storage. The facility would be cooled, not by water, but by air-driven chillers.


Micro-grids make sense for remote Native nations hobbled by lack of access to transmission lines. They enhance sovereignty by removing dependence on non-Indian utilities and power plants and keep functioning even if the larger grid goes down. Plus, as demonstrated by the proposed Leesburg data center, they can be designed to be carbon free.

 

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