If a data center is camouflaged in the woods, will anyone hate it?

Microsoft is expanding ‘biomimicry’ at its data centers as it faces more pushback from locals over construction, pollution, and noise. is a senior science reporter covering energy and the environment with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home, a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals. San Antonio City Councilmember Ric Galvan remembers when data centers first arrived in his city in the 2000s, looking like relatively unassuming office buildings. But that’s changed in recent years, as data centers have grown into massive “hyperscale” facilities spanning millions of square feet and housing the physical infrastructure for AI. There are now more than a dozen data centers in Galvan’s roughly 55-square-mile district, and he expects that number to grow to around 20 over the next few years if proposed projects are completed. They’re clustered along two main roads, concentrating nuisances in the same neighborhoods: traffic and trees cut down during construction, followed by constant bright lights and noise when the data center is operating. A lot of the area used to be green fields, he explains, allowing many residents to feel close to nature. Now, he says, “that…