The Oct. 28 event will feature numerous expert panels discussing potential Central Coast impacts

Contact: Pat Pemberton
ppembert@calpoly.edu; 805-235-0555

SAN LUIS OBISPO – As thousands of data centers are set to be built in the United States amid growing opposition to them, the next Real Estate Day event will explore issues around the large tech buildings, including demand, infrastructure needs, controversies and financing.

“If we didn’t have data centers, many of the modern-day applications that we run on our phones, computers or TVs might not function as smoothly,” said Hamed Ghoddusi, director of the Real Estate Initiative, which is presenting Real Estate Day. “Thus, certain sectors of the U.S. economy could not deliver services at the current rate.”

Data centers also create large private investment, construction work and local tax revenue. 

However, according to a recent Gallup Poll, 70% of Americans don’t want them in their community.

“Residents think about electricity bills; who pays for grid expansion; water use; land consumption; construction activity; generator emissions; noise; and the character of the surrounding area,” said Ghoddusi, who is also an associate finance professor in the Orfalea College of Business. “There is also a basic distribution issue: The local community experiences the physical footprint, while many of the benefits from AI and cloud computing are spread across the country or the world.”

Real Estate Day, (Oct. 28, from noon to 5 p.m. at the Chumash Auditorium on the Cal Poly campus) will feature several panels exploring topics such as trends, site selection and the potential for data centers on the Central Coast. Speakers include Dawn Ortiz-Legg, District 3 supervisor for San Luis Obispo County, Scott Collins, assistant city manager for San Luis Obispo, multiple faculty members from the Orfalea College of Business and the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, and industry representatives from the fields of tech, real estate, construction and more.

Data centers are typically large, windowless buildings hosting servers that help drive the internet. As the global race to lead AI intensifies, tech giants are building more data centers. There are currently more than 5,200 data centers operating in the United States, according to the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, with over 2,000 more planned.

Data centers consume resources, including water and electricity. As an example, Ghoddusi said, one large data center could demand 200 megawatts of electricity, as much energy as San Luis Obispo County, equaling almost 10% of the power produced by the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. 

“Training large models and serving millions of AI users requires substantial computing capacity, and the newest campuses can require hundreds of megawatts of power,” Ghoddusi said. 

As the midterm election approaches, data centers have become political.

In August, the tiny village of Nehawka, Nebraska, became one of roughly 500 communities to ban data centers or impose moratoriums. And political candidates recently debated them in North Dakota and Louisiana, two states not known for tech innovation. 

“Once large projects began showing up in utility plans and local land-use hearings, the politics followed,” Ghoddusi said. “Communities started asking who pays for substations and transmission, how much water a project uses, what happens to nearby land and what the local economic benefit will be.”

On the Central Coast, where open space is a selling point for residents and tourism, proposed data centers would likely be controversial.

“I would expect Central Coast leaders to be selective and very site specific,” Ghoddusi said. “This region places a high value on open space, agriculture, watersheds, community character and resource sustainability. Those values are already embedded in local planning, so a large project on visually sensitive land or close to residential neighborhoods would receive very careful review.”

Ghoddusi doesn’t expect data centers in San Luis Obispo County.

“However, we may see a more receptive environment at the northern part of Santa Barbara County due to multiple factors, including resource availability, historical energy facilities and proximity to the Vandenberg Space Force Base.”

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