Two separate groups are looking to build data centers in San Marcos in the coming years.
The two data center proposals are currently in different stages. Armbrust & Brown, PLLC, on behalf of Highlander SM One, LLC and Donald and Germaine Tuff, have submitted a proposal to the city. The second proposed data center from CloudBurst has not been submitted to the city.
Data centers are facilities full of computers and computer servers that can be used for various purposes, such as data storage and hosting artificial intelligence algorithms.
The proposals for the two data centers come just weeks after San Marcos was predicted to face a water shortage by 2047. According to Yale Environment 360, data centers can consume millions of gallons of water to cool their computer systems.
“[Data centers] are absolutely huge wastes of water,” Councilmember Matthew Mendoza said at city council’s Feb. 18 meeting. “The reason why they use so much water is to cool their render servers basically. They have floors full of servers.”
According to a presentation presented to city council on Feb. 18, the proposal by Armbrust & Brown, PLLC, on behalf of Highlander SM One, LLC, and Donald and Germaine Tuff includes a plan to recirculate cooling water, which would lessen the total water used by their facility.
“We have confirmed that the data center uses a closed loop water system, so once the system is filled and set it continues to use the same water,” John Mayberry, who represented the applicants, said. “We are working to quantify the amount of water that evaporates or is lost.”
According to Mayberry, the data center he was speaking for would obtain water from Crystal Clear and electricity from Pedernales, not from the city of San Marcos.
According to the Feb. 18 city council meeting, the city of San Marcos has not received any zoning or permit requests for CloudBurst’s proposed data center. In an emailed statement to The Star the city said they did not know enough about CloudBurst to comment on the proposal.
Neither the CloudBurst press release nor their website mention potential water consumption but do say the facility will be partially powered by on-site solar panels and a gas power plant.
“About five years ago, [data centers] started using natural gas as a base power source to support these data centers,” Apan Qasem, computer science professor, said. “I think the current plan is for [the CloudBurst] data center that they’re supplying [gas] then converting it to [electricity].”
A press release from the State Comptroller’s Office stated Texas’ power demand is predicted to nearly double by 2030. The growth in demand is partially credited to an increased number of data centers around the state.
Qasem said the power consumption in data centers is high because of the demand for equipment such as graphic processing units.
According to Qasem, data centers can provide various employment opportunities for the surrounding communities.
“Once the data center is operational, that’s where the computing people come in, and we’ll have demands for IT personnel, network engineers and machine learning and AI specialists,” Qasem said.
Qasem also said the data centers could create some remote jobs, as not all specialists would need to be on the premises to do their jobs.
Both proposals are in different stages currently. The proposal by Armbrust & Brown, PLLC, on behalf of Highlander SM One, LLC, and Donald and Germaine Tuff will be seen again by city council on April 1 and April 15.
According to CloudBurst’s website, they are seeking permitting approval in late February.
