There has never been a product so much in demand . . . ever.

Over 240 million smartphones are in use in America (I asked Siri). There were 84 million cars connected to the internet in 2012, and 305 million are expected to be connected to the internet by 2030 (again Siri). There are millions of GPS units doing everything from finding fishing holes to the distance to the next putting green. Our refrigerators, lights, thermostats, doorbell cameras, and children’s phones are connected to our phones and computers, which are connected to about everything. We can see about every home in the country on many websites, what’s for sale, who paid their property taxes, and even who needs a new roof.

The product is data. That phone you carry has more computing power than NASA had to put a man on the moon; but it is the data that you ask for. The need to see and manipulate data is growing exponentially every month — because you ask for it.

All that data used to be housed in libraries, in books, and in doctors’ office files. It once filled dusty boxes in attics or warehouses of “fireproof storage” until the digital age arrived. Today it resides “in the cloud.” All of this pales compared to online shopping. We regularly remark that “it’s all on the internet,” but it isn’t. The internet is the transportation highway for the data that resides in data centers. Data centers are “The Cloud.”

Like the bellicose huckster says “BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE.” We ask for still more. We ask Google, SIRI, or even our accounting software those”what about” questions like “How much money do I need to retire?” or “How long will it take to drive to Florida next week?” Now we are not only asking to retrieve that data, but we are asking for SIRI or Google to manipulate the data. Farmers are asking how much fertilizer to apply, but only after submitting soil samples (data), priests are asking for help writing this Sunday’s sermon from data (the Bible), and NASA is trying to determine the likelihood of Earth being hit by a comet. Our insatiable thirst for data has become a quest for that information to make sense; which becomes so overwhelming we then ask ChatGPT to give us the best options.

We did this to ourselves. Just like the guy who “wants it all” and then doesn’t know what to do with it; our handy, indispensable, pocket companion is just the smiling face of not only one, but hundreds of data centers. Your lovely new car full of front, rear and side cameras and sensors not only giving you map information but driving you home hands free; all the while acting as a net collecting more data and feeding it to . . . you guessed it. . . data centers. It isn’t called the internet for nothing. The exponential growth of available data and our desire for it in all forms is fueling the data center boom. AND THIS IS BAD?

The electric grid is the internet of electricity. Electrons enter that grid in thousands of points from solar panels to coal fire power plants. Not unlike the data we crave, hundreds of millions of users crave that power. Electrons that began life in a Kentucky coal fire power plant make their way to a Chicago kitchen toaster or a Virginia data center. Like data, an electron will go where it is demanded and paid for. Whether the demand comes from Cleveland or Bangor, the local electric user buys his electron on the grid’s open market (see Ohio’s ApplestoApples power marketplace). If a steel plant, data center or Grandma Jones wants power, they all get it from the same place, the electric grid.

While there are volume discounts, an electron is an electron is an electron. Wanting a data center to locate somewhere else to keep local electric bills low is not a reality. The electron will flow to who pays the most. Wanting data centers and their power usage to go away means throwing yours and a hundred million users’ phones and computers away — not likely.

Past political administrations have forced directives that sunsetted coal, oil, gas, and nuclear electric generated electric plants in favor of less reliable wind and solar; at the same time the data-craving public has exponentially increased the need for data storage and manipulation. That has collided with our desire to reshore millions of manufacturing jobs that desperately need the electricity as well. The demand for base load electricity has outstripped the supply and this is certain to persist well into the next decade. The demand for gas turbine systems that are two times as efficient as any other system (generating cheaper electricity) have a backlog of nearly five years for the equipment alone, let alone construction times of another two years.

Some technologies can help. First are “peakers” which are smaller generating plants that can turn on at peak demand times (like a sunny summer day) and turn them off at night when demand lessens. A very interesting “peaker” is industrial-grade battery systems that get charged at night and feed the grid during daytime peak loads. Many battery makers have shifted production from EV batteries to industrial batteries. Second, power/cost saving measures like switching to LED streetlights will lessen the night time load so that peaker batteries are more effective.

In the end, producing consistent base load electricity is the only solution.

Let’s find a way to embrace data centers and the power needed for reshoring manufacturing jobs. Because both can flourish. Why shouldn’t you get all the data, manufacturing jobs AND the tax dollars they can generate. After all, data centers create no traffic for police or road crews to monitor, few on-the-job injuries for our EMS, no noise pollution, no air pollution. On paper, data centers are the perfect neighbor who doesn’t come to complain at school board or zoning hearings. More advanced computing chips and cooling systems will lessen the need for vast power and water supplies, but remember that most water supplies are municipally owned so they are just another form of income to power government. The problems they (you) create can be addressed; but chasing them away is as fruitless as banning truck traffic while having a turnpike exit on to state roads. Nothing raises the ire of the public like municipal fathers tilting at windmills.

Dan Crouse is a commercial real-

estate agent in Trumbull County.