Data centers are the backbone of the digital economy, but their growth has come with a heavy cost. They consume vast amounts of energy, lock in diesel reliance, and reshape local ecosystems. The industry often points to reliability and customer demand as reasons for why things can’t change. But many of these arguments are assumptions, not facts. And they’re holding us back from a net-zero future. ### What I’m thinking about 1. **Reliability myths** Operators say every workload needs maximum uptime, so they keep diesel backup and long on-site fuel reserves. Yet studies show most applications don’t need that level of service. Cloud architectures already spread workloads across regions to manage downtime risk. The insistence on overbuilt reliability drives unnecessary carbon output. 2. **Generators and energy storage** Diesel is seen as the only reliable backup, but alternatives exist. Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) reduces lifecycle emissions by up to 90 percent compared to diesel. Battery storage has improved in both duration and cost, with global storage capacity doubling between 2021 and 2023. Microgrids—once dismissed as too expensive—are proving viable for campuses, military bases, and industrial hubs. 3. **Local impact and community value** Building massive data centers often clears land and locks communities into one-dimensional economic benefit: jobs and tax revenue. But data centers can do more. They can share waste heat, stabilize local grids with storage, and use renewable projects to lower power costs for the region. Some European operators are already piping heat into homes. This expands their role from silent factories into genuine community assets. ### So what? The data center industry has normalized a set of assumptions that keep carbon intensity high. If leaders start questioning the “we have no choice” mindset, options appear. Not every workload needs maximum redundancy. Backup fuel doesn’t have to mean diesel. Community value can be more than taxes. The sector has the engineering talent and financial power to change, but it must first admit that many barriers are self-imposed. The faster it does, the closer we get to digital infrastructure that scales without burning the planet. [[The Unsustainable Data Center]] [[Data Center MoC]] [[Navon MoC]]