Saturday, 7 November 2026

Forty local and state anti-data center measures passed in the US midterm elections this week, according to Semafor Net Zero, amid a broader voter backlash against AI infrastructure expansion.

Many of those measures will not halt construction altogether and will not affect compute capacity coming online until 2029 at the earliest, Semafor Net Zero reported.

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said the data center buildout will continue despite voters making clear they favor limits on AI infrastructure construction, according to Semafor Net Zero.

Elon Musk's xAI installed eight converted aircraft turbines in Mississippi to supply electricity to its Colossus 2 data center in Memphis, Tennessee, according to greenprophet.com. The company turned to polluting power sources because the local energy grid cannot support the Colossus data center and its large number of graphics processing units, BGR reported.

Permits examined by The New York Times and reported by greenprophet.com show the eight converted turbines are authorized to emit carbon monoxide at twice the rate permitted for other turbines at the site. Their permitted emissions limits for volatile organic compounds are 25% higher than those for other turbines at the facility.

The NAACP took xAI to court over turbines at the Mississippi facility, claiming the company violated the Clean Air Act, according to BGR.

NextNRG has reached a preliminary agreement to acquire a 33-acre property in South Bend for a combined energy and artificial intelligence infrastructure development, according to InkFreeNews. The non-binding deal with Envision South Bend LLC values the property at approximately USD 22 million.

The proposed facility, called the Lone Wolf Energy Center, would pair on-site electricity generation, energy storage, and microgrid technology with computing facilities for AI and data-processing operations, InkFreeNews reported.

Capacity is expected to reach approximately 70 MW, with the potential to scale to 100 MW.

Data centers and new technology loads accounted for about 24% of Ireland's electricity requirements in 2024, with the share expected to reach 30% by 2032, according to Data Center Dynamics.

A proposed grid code modification known as MPID345 would, if adopted, require large demand facilities to act as active participants in Irish grid stability rather than operating solely as electricity consumers, Data Center Dynamics reported.

Ireland's data center fleet has already demonstrated growing capacity for demand-side response during grid stress events. During a grid fault in January 2022, data centers cut demand by 74 MW, representing 16% of total data center demand, according to Data Center Dynamics. By May 2025, the recorded reduction during a similar event had climbed to 387 MW, or 52% of total data center demand.