Local residents who live next to Europe’s largest data center park say the scorching summer heat is becoming unbearable.
Nabeel Nawaz, manager of the Chaiwala franchise in central Slough, said days like Wednesday’s can be so hot that it “wraps you up and makes your skin burn”.
Even more difficult to establish is whether the heat is solely a result of the climate emergency and the growing industrial sprawl across London, or whether the creation of dozens of energy-hungry data centers is also contributing to the problem.
Nabeel Nawaz: The heat is like something “squeezing” your body. Photo: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
Slough, 10 miles (16 km) west of Heathrow Airport, has become one of the world’s largest data center hubs, with an estimated 30 to 40 huge facilities, many of them on campuses in the town centre. They are owned and maintained by companies such as Equinix and Digital Realty, and serve dozens of clients, including some of the world’s largest technology companies such as Amazon, Google, Oracle, and Microsoft.
A development plan on the edge of the same campus will see more buildings constructed.
New research, including a preprint of a paper led by Cambridge researchers earlier this year, suggests that data centers create a heat island effect, raising temperatures in their immediate vicinity by an average of 2°C and up to 9°C.
This is because sensitive electronics, including cutting-edge AI chips, require cooling systems to keep temperatures down. The government is proposing to use waste heat from data centers to heat thousands of homes.
Slough is one of the world’s largest data center hubs. Photo: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
Andrea Marinoni, an associate professor at the University of Cambridge and one of the authors, said the research was still in its early stages. His study, controlling for other factors such as urbanization and the climate crisis, is based on decades of satellite data and suggests that increases in 2C are robust around the world. The paper cites data center complexes in Brazil and Spain.
But he says this may underestimate the impact a site like Slough has on its surroundings. His research focuses on data centers built over the past few decades, most of which are much smaller than those being built today, typically consuming up to 100 megawatts of power.
A site like Slough, which is widely reported to have a data center of around 1 gigawatt, is of a different scale and potentially has a much larger impact.
“Slough is an experiment in itself in the sense that new investment in data centers is enabling a new generation of data centres,” he said.
“What we measured was what you would call the first generation of data centers that have been deployed in the last 20 years. Slough is a different situation for data center scale-ups and is completely unprecedented.”
On Wednesday, a data center in Slough, several stories high and surrounded by security fencing, emitted a low rumble like the sound of a generator. The weather station closest to Tech Park, a few blocks away, recorded a high of 36.7 degrees that day, and 36.5 degrees the day before. Other weather stations in Slough and surrounding areas saw temperatures drop by several degrees at times, with one in the town center, away from Tech Park, hitting 36.2 degrees Celsius on Wednesday and 34.7 degrees the previous day. That pattern continued into this week.
Many Slough residents know about the data center, but opinions vary. Photo: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
For residents of Slough, the data center is tangible. It is adjacent to a main street and can be heard through the office walls. There is much debate about how it will affect the region.
“We talked about it the other day,” says Didier Kindembe, taking a lunch break on the lawn in the middle of the industrial park. “I think it’s not just the data center, but also the concrete. There’s a lot of concrete around, and it absorbs heat.”
Kindembe’s friend Matt, who asked that his last name not be used, says Slough is consistently hotter than surrounding areas. “In 2022, during the heat wave, the temperature in the parking lot was 45 degrees Celsius. But as we drove into Windsor, the temperature dropped to 39 degrees Celsius.”
“People are wondering why it’s so hot. It’s getting hotter and hotter,” says Naveed Hussein, who has lived in Slough all her life.
“My computer produces a lot of heat, and so does my cell phone. So I have to assume that large data centers produce heat as well.”
Others are less sure. Chaiwala manager Nawaz said he has been talking to many people about the data center issue and its impact on the area. He said many people in Slough were aware of the data center, but opinions were mixed. Data centers also create jobs in the community.
“I think it’s only 10 to 15 percent of why it’s getting hotter. Most of it is climate change.”
