Why Longmont leaders said no to massive data centers in town (before any had been proposed there)

The city of Longmont last week took an unusual step toward limiting the impact of data centers on the community and its energy grid. Data centers are built to support the growing tech and artificial intelligence sections. And they consume huge amounts of electricity and water, which makes them especially controversial in an arid state like Colorado. The Longmont city council voted to restrict the development of especially large – or “hyperscale” – data centers that would consume more than 5 percent of the city’s available power. That’s about 70 megawatts, or enough energy to power roughly 30,000 homes.   At the moment, there are no data centers proposed for Longmont that fit that description. So we reached out to Matthew Popkin, the city council member who proposed the ordinance, to talk about the idea behind the measure. He spoke with In The NoCo’s Brad Turner.