Valley’s too hot, parched for AI data centers, reader says

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OPINION — Arizona is being asked to absorb a wave of new artificial intelligence and data center plants, each one consuming massive amounts of electricity and releasing equally massive amounts of waste heat.

These facilities run continuously, and every megawatt they use becomes heat that must be expelled into the surrounding air. In cold climates, that heat is an asset. In greater Phoenix, it is a direct threat to public health.

The core principle is straightforward: AI plants should be built only where their waste heat can be used.

Cold-weather cities with district heating networks can capture this heat to warm homes. Industrial zones can use it for process heat. Coastal desalination hubs can use it to preheat seawater. Greenhouse agriculture can use it to extend growing seasons.

In those locations, AI plants become part of a larger energy system, and their heat is recycled instead of wasted.

In Arizona, none of that is possible. The heat is simply dumped into the air. Studies from Arizona State University show that neighborhoods downwind of a single data center warm by 1.3 to 4 degrees.

With dozens of facilities proposed across the Valley, the cumulative impact becomes unavoidable: hotter nights, higher APS bills, increased strain on seniors and a growing urban heat island that already ranks among the worst in the nation.

Arizona gains the heat, the water consumption, the grid demand and the environmental burden. Other states gain the economic value of using the heat productively. That imbalance is unacceptable.

Arizona’s leaders should adopt a clear policy: AI plants belong in regions where their waste heat is an asset, not a burden. If the heat cannot be captured and used, the facility should not be built.

This is not antitechnology. It is responsible siting. It protects seniors, protects neighborhoods and protects Arizona’s future.

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