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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana has become fertile ground for Big Tech companies to build massive data centers, with four major investments totaling more than $14 billion announced in the last year. However, growing concerns over the centers’ intense energy demands have led to at least two pieces of legislation this session.
Data centers are filled with computers, servers and cooling systems that run around the clock, using huge amounts of electricity. House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, previously said the state needs to increase its energy production to meet demand and attract further development.
“I want every data center that we can get in the state of Indiana,” he said in November. “These are huge economic opportunities.”
In 2024, Amazon Web Services announced an $11 billion project in New Carlisle; Google would invest $2 billion in southeast Fort Wayne; Microsoft would build a $1 billion center in La Porte; and Meta Platforms announced an $800 million project in Jeffersonville.
Senate Utilities Committee Chair Eric Koch, R-Bedford, filed a bill that would bar a foreign company from building a data center unless it met certain energy requirements. Under Senate Bill 431, a proposed development would be required to have a joint Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and Indiana Economic Development Corp. study conducted to estimate the project’s energy use. (The bill’s fiscal note says the agencies’ current staff and funding would be expected to handle the increased workload.)
SB 431 also specifies that the development would need to generate its own energy and not take from the regional supply.
Senate Bill 135 would require existing data centers and future developments to provide the IURC with quarterly reports about their electricity usage. In the case of new developments, before issuing a permit, a local government would need to perform a site assessment and require a company to submit expected utilities usage.
According to the bill, authored by Sen. J.D. Ford, D-Indianapolis, the utility regulatory body would need to establish a study group to estimate the future needs of the state’s data center industry and present findings and recommendations to the Legislature by November.
Several bills have also been filed to increase the state’s energy supply, which Republicans have labeled a priority issue this session. Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, has filed House Bill 1007 to grow the state’s nuclear capacity through small modular reactors, or SMRs. Koch also filed two bills to upstart SMR development.
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Someone should challenge Huston as to who will benefit economically from data centers outside of utility companies looking for a reason, any reason, to keep burning coal.
It won’t lead to jobs. The high tech jobs of the future don’t move to Indiana because the data center is there. You can access a data center from anywhere.