Portugal currently has 46 data centers, most of them in Lisbon (25) and Porto (11), and could add another 44, four of them large-scale, according to numbers revealed by the Government. Quercus considers that a scenario of 90 data centers scattered across the country would have “a high environmental cost and impact on the quality of life of the populations” and calls for a halt until conditions are in place that guarantee the sustainability of the electricity grid, water resources, territory and communities. The association acknowledges that this number is “highly unlikely,” but sees in it a reversal of priorities.
For Quercus, the Government started at the end. First it launched the National Data Center Plan (PNCD), which presents Portugal as a country with abundant water and reliable renewable energy, and only after creating a climate of acceleration and speculation did it begin to lay the legal foundations to protect communities and territories.
The risks pointed out begin with water: high consumption and the possibility of contamination of water resources are at the head of concerns, to which are added pressure on agricultural and forest soils, landscape alteration and greenhouse gas emissions, which, according to the association, will be 57% higher than previously thought. The association also notes frequent noise complaints from communities living near these infrastructures, as well as the local temperature rise caused by the heat of evaporation cooling systems. In energy, Quercus recalls the cases of Ireland and the Netherlands, where the consumption of data centers threatens to push up the tariffs for local communities, and notes that even the solar and wind parks that feed them occupy land and may force the destruction of native forest.
Among the proposed measures are water-free cooling systems, such as closed-loop cooling, water reuse and choosing sites with greater water availability. In energy, the association wants promoters to rely on their own renewables, preferably using their own already artificialized infrastructure, and to commit to paying a minimum network capacity for 10 to 15 years, whether used or not, so that the network reinforcement does not end up on households’ bills. It also proposes an annual contribution to a local fund supporting vulnerable consumers, environmental compensation defined with communities, the transfer of part of the computing capacity to universities, startups and public services, and a deposit to dismantle the facilities at end of life.
“It is necessary to demand caution and a slowdown of investment in the creation of these infrastructures that feed artificial intelligence. Some countries that mapped this path before us now find themselves forced to retreat and remedy the mistakes made,” says Mariana Garanhão, a policy and external relations officer at Quercus.
