DURHAM, N.C.—Duke University plans to build a small data center on its central campus, potentially the first of several projects of similar size, but some faculty members are wondering whether the energy- and water-intensive effort could derail the university’s efforts to combat climate change.
The 1.5-megawatt data center could eventually be expanded to 3 megawatts, a university spokesperson said. The facility will be built on 12 acres of Duke-owned property along Yearby Avenue near the university’s electrical substation and water cooler plant, according to city and county building permits dated April 8.
Contractors began preparing the site this week. Construction is expected to be completed next year.
Many universities in the United States have built or are building their own data centers to manage student information, sensitive medical records, and academic research. Duke University may also use the data center to attract faculty, according to minutes from an April meeting of the Academic Council, the main faculty governance body.
The Duke facility will provide computing power to support the university’s researchers “as they address society’s most pressing challenges,” a university spokesperson said. “Consistent with Duke University’s commitment to climate change, the facility is designed with a focus on environmental responsibility and sustainability. With this project, Duke University aims to set an example of how to build an energy-efficient, carbon-conscious infrastructure that meets the computing needs of a modern research university.”
The $23 million data center is not a super-large facility like the megaprojects built by Amazon, Meta, and Google. However, the university may build other smaller facilities on and off campus, such as schools and hospitals.
“We can put nodes everywhere,” Duke University President Alec Gallimore told the Academic Council in March. “They can be installed where access to hot water and more sustainable energy is needed as a way to bridge the gap between the growth of AI and the sustainability of the planet.”
Several famous sites are within 400 meters of the property. Carolina Friends Early School is for children ages 3-6. Friends Meeting House, where members of the Quaker sect gather. Ronald McDonald House provides temporary housing and support for seriously ill children and their families. And Duke Gardens is a tourist destination that attracts 600,000 visitors each year.
The future data center will be built on property that Duke purchased in 1965 from the Burlington Industrial Foundation, a division of the textile company. Duke demolished the small homes and the longtime residents, many of whom worked in factories, were evicted. Credit: Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News
Ronald McDonald House officials declined to comment on the proposal. Carolina Friends principal Karen Cumberbatch said the university “has not shared a proposed development plan for the vacant land on Central Campus.”
A university spokesperson said that because the center will not have external cooling equipment, “no noise or other community impacts are expected that would require notification of local property owners.”
The Building Safety Department issued the permit a month before the City Council adopted a 60-day data center moratorium. City Council and Durham County Commission are expected to pass a two-year moratorium on new and expanded hyperscale data centers later this summer.
A spokesperson for the City of Durham told Inside Climate News that data processing facilities that are secondary to their primary use, such as facilities supporting hospitals, offices and educational institutions, are exempt from the moratorium unless they are used solely for on-site needs and are not providing services to external users.
The university’s data center will also be exempt from the moratorium under state law. Local governments cannot impose a moratorium on development, including data centers, on projects that have a valid building permit or have invested “significant expenditures” under previous permit approvals.
Data centers, even small data centers, can consume enormous amounts of energy to power computers.
According to Duke University’s Office of Climate and Sustainability, annual energy use on the main campus is split almost evenly between electricity and natural gas. It uses the energy and water equivalent of 10,000 to 40,000 typical homes.
The data center is expected to increase the university’s energy consumption by 2 to 3 percent during peak loads, according to a university spokesperson. Duke is also exploring how renewable energy can be used to power the facility.
A university spokesperson said the center’s emissions will be disclosed on a public online dashboard as part of Duke University’s carbon emissions reporting.
In February, Duke University’s AI Steering Committee released several recommendations for the use of artificial intelligence and data centers in all aspects of campus life.
Universities could use data centers for pioneering research on energy consumption, carbon intensity, and other impacts, rather than as “passive utilities,” the report said, “enabling institutions to expand their AI capabilities while meaningfully reducing harm to the environment.”
Data centers also require large amounts of water to cool computers. The university did not provide usage estimates to Inside Climate News, but Tracy Husey, vice president and chief information officer, told the Academic Senate last month that the data center could put cold water on computers and send hot water to the university and health system’s hot water plants.
“This makes it more than just a data center that is cooled in the air and hot air escapes into the environment,” Hussey said, according to meeting minutes.
The City of Durham supplies water to the university. A city spokesperson said the water department has not received any information from Duke about anticipated usage.
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Durham is one of 67 counties in North Carolina experiencing extreme drought. Durham has just over four months of readily available water and two more months of hard-to-find emergency supplies left, according to city data.
Leslie St. Dore is the founder of Community Land and Power, a Durham-based housing, land and environmental justice organization. They were among dozens of people who spoke in favor of a data center moratorium before the City Council earlier this month.
St. Dore told Inside Climate News that local officials should also cap the total amount of megawatts consumed by data centers within cities and counties. “We have 20 5-megawatt data centers, but that’s still 100 megawatts,” St Dre said. “They’re undoing the progress we’ve made on climate change. These major climate changes are getting worse.”
Carbon neutral or carbon driver?
Duke University achieved carbon neutrality in 2024 and 2025, according to its annual report on climate change initiatives. The university has reduced emissions by 31% since 2007, even as the campus population grew by 24% and 3 million square feet of new space was added.
In addition to reducing emissions, the university achieved the benchmark by purchasing carbon offsets, which account for the remaining 65%, according to the report.
These offsets included manure digesters that convert methane to electricity at three dairy farms in Washington state. Landfill gas power generation facility in Montana. Two projects, one in the United States and one in Thailand, will destroy ozone-depleting refrigerant gases that would otherwise leak from storage containers and enter the atmosphere.
However, Duke University will no longer be carbon neutral after this year, according to academic conference minutes from March. “I think most people don’t know that,” says Prasad Kashibhatra, a professor of environmental chemistry at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. “When I think about the word that we are leaders, I wonder how we justify that.”
If Duke University builds out a large network of data centers, it could become even more difficult to reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. The university says it will meet that standard, including the Duke University Health System, a vast network of hospitals and clinics that requires enormous amounts of energy.
“We’re not taking our foot off the gas in terms of decarbonization,” Duke University President Vincent Price said, according to minutes from a March meeting. “The data centers we bring online to support our computing work have required detailed conversations about energy consumption as we seek to reduce our carbon footprint. We cannot back down from our carbon neutrality goal.”
Mr Price said universities could purchase more carbon offsets to reach net zero, reduce energy consumption “to sustainable levels”, or both.
Duke University has installed 1 megawatt of solar power in several locations on campus.
Hussey, co-chair of the AI Steering Committee, told the Academic Council last month that Duke’s approach to AI “must go beyond just balancing benefits and risks and actively contribute to improving the human condition.”
“AI strategies cannot be considered sustainable unless they deliver clear and meaningful social value,” Futhey said. “We have worked very hard to find ways to realize our passion for computation and the need to support science at Duke, while also recognizing and not conflicting with climate change efforts.”
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thank you,
Lisa Sorg
north carolina reporter
Lisa Sorg is a North Carolina reporter for Inside Climate News. A journalist for 30 years, Sorg covers energy, climate and agriculture, as well as the social justice impacts of pollution and corporate misconduct.
She has received numerous awards for news, public service, and investigative reporting. In 2022, she won the Stokes Award from the National Press Foundation for a two-part story about the environmental damage caused by a former missile factory in a black and Latino neighborhood in Burlington. Mr. Sorg previously served as an environmental investigative reporter at NC Newsline, a Raleigh-based nonprofit media outlet. She has also worked for alternative weeklies, dailies, and magazines. Originally from rural Indiana, I now live in Durham, North Carolina.
