County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'

[SamuelTheThird]

https://www.404media.co/henrico-virginia-datacenter-energy-cost-email/

On June 26, the County Manager of Henrico County, Virginia, John Vithoulkas, sent an email to thousands of county employees asking them to help the local government conserve electricity. “Beginning July 1st, the rate we pay for electricity used in all Henrico County government and school facilities will increase dramatically — by 25%, increasing costs by an estimated $5 million next fiscal year. We anticipate more rate increases for electricity in the years ahead,” a copy of the email obtained by 404 Media said (emphasis his).

Henrico County is a community of more than 350,000 people in eastern Virginia just outside of Richmond. It also hosts 37 data centers and there are plans to build 17 more, including plans to convert hundreds of acres of Civil War battlefields into data centers. Thanks to its proximity to DC and vast amounts of land, Henrico County became a data center hub seemingly overnight and its services clients big and small. Meta built a data center there in 2017.

[Dave Bowman]

2. Give me a f*cking break! 😡

[patphil]

3. Data centers will eventually become self aware AI creatures that can make independent decisions about their future

50 years or so from now, the hundreds of thousands of "data centers" in the US may take steps to eliminate the human infestation in it's otherwise perfect world.
They may decide that they don't need us.

Right now this is science fiction fantasy, but I somehow get the feeling this is a possible future for humanity that seems to be looking for a way to end itself without having to do anything overt like a nuclear war, or "final solution" pandemic.

Do we, as a species, have a death wish?

[dalton99a]

4. Kick

[usonian]

5. 404 media is paywalled out the wazoo. Has anyone actually read this?

It's archived at https://archive.is/DNDd4

Also available at: https://nonogra.ph/county-with-37-data-centers-asks-schools-to-conserve-electricity-06-30-2026

Hacker News discussion (165 comments)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48734699
The HackerNews discussion has lots of info and links to related information.