The Environmental Impact of Terrestrial Data Centers

By Selva Ozelli Esq, CPA, who is an international digital asset legal expert and author of Sustainably Investing in Digital Assets Globally. 

This article is part of a series of articles I am writing for Irish Tech News  to explore the financial, technical, legal aspects of utilizing space solar energized orbital data centers that are rapidly evolving into “AI Factories, designed specifically to convert massive amounts of electrical power into intelligence, measured in tokens”  around the world.

My new series is a follow up to an interview ITN conducted with me in 2020 exploring how space solar energy could sustainably energize the tokenization of the global  financial markets which is projected to grow to multi-trillion dollars by the end of the decade.

The Environmental Impact of Terrestrial Data Centers

The skies were brown once again in  New York  with Air Quality Advisories issued due to the intense smoke and hazardous air quality that choked New York City and the surrounding Northeast region throughout July 2026 originating from massive, uncontrolled wildfires burning in Canada, in tandem with the apocalyptic  wildfires in Europe which began escalating sharply in early July 2026, heavily impacting France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Scottish Highlands and Greece forcing over 330,000 evacuations.  Breathing the hazardous air in New York burnt my lungs, teared my eyes  as I read the hopeful news that Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order New York State Governor Official Website halting state agencies from issuing discretionary permits to new hyperscale data centers (drawing 50 megawatts or more of power) for up to one year to study their environmental and grid impacts.

Hyperscale data centers require massive resource inputs, typically drawing 100 megawatts (MW) or more of electrical power and consuming 1 million to 5 million gallons of water per day for cooling and operations. Recent reports and state data show that New York ranks 12th in the U.S. building data center hubs with roughly 50 massive data centers currently operating, 3 under construction and over 72 additional hyperscale projects actively stalled or proposed in NYS’s power queue.  The pause targets massive energy and water demands, aiming to protect NY’s power grid.

Also see:  https://irishtechnews.ie/sustainable-orbital-data-center-infrastructure/

Ranked: The U.S. States Building the Most Data Centers

Data Center Moratoriums  National Conference of State Legislatures

New York is the first and the only U.S. state to enact a full, statewide moratorium on large data center construction following the leads of Amsterdam, NL which imposed a moratorium on new data center developments in 2019 until at least 2030 and Dublin, Ireland which blocked new data center connections ?that ended  in December 2025.

While no other state in the U.S. has implemented a statewide ban, dozens of state legislatures and municipalities across the country have introduced or passed temporary bans and restrictions.  Maine passed a statewide moratorium bill on large data centers in the spring of 2026, but the legislation was ultimately vetoed by the governor.

At least a dozen other states including Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania have introduced temporary construction bans or permitting moratoriums in their state legislatures to study the impact of these facilities on utility rates. Because zoning and development are heavily localized, many cities and counties have enacted their own restrictions such as Monterey Park, California where residents voted to permanently ban data centers within city limits, marking the first ballot-box ban in the U.S.  Or municipalities in states like Colorado, Oklahoma, Illinois, and Michigan that have enacted temporary pauses or bans on new builds.

Pennsylvania which ranks #4,  NYS which ranks #12 and Montana which ranks #40 on the “U.S. States Building the Most Data Centers” list are  special states in the US as they enacted a constitutional green amendments to their state constitutions.   The specific legal term “Green Amendment” is primarily used in the US have added them to their bills of rights. Globally, more than 100 countries  amended their national constitutions to include explicit provisions or rights for a healthy environment, with early adopters like Portugal (1976), Spain (1978), France (2005), Italy (2022) excluding the US, Netherlands and Ireland. They ensure environmental rights environment as a basic civil liberty —like clean air, pure water, and a stable climate.

These rights can require government officials like Governor Kathy Hochul to prioritize environmental protections in energy policy, with courts playing an important role in enforcing environmental rights.  As they are recognized and protected at a fundamental level, setting a legal foundation for environmental protection, often allowing citizens to sue for environmental harm and hold the government accountable for preserving natural resources.

Space solarized orbital data centers present a trade-off to terrestrial data centers as they eliminate land and water use by using solar power and space vacuum cooling, but they risk severe upper-atmosphere pollution from space junk, rocket launches and satellite re-entries.

See also:  https://irishtechnews.ie/us-space-race-solarized-data-infrastructure/

Already Japan has had a long running space solar program called Space-Based Solar Power Systems (SSPS) highlighted by the upcoming Ohisama Project led by Japan Space Systems which began in the 1980s through government agencies and academic groups like JAXA. This year China has explicitly integrated Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP) into its long-term strategic energy landscape, accelerating development under the core “Zhuri” (Sun-Chasing) project, shifting the technology towards a green industrial policy.  In mid-2026, a consortium of 13 tier-one Chinese green energy and aerospace companies (including GCL Technology and Trina Solar) formed the Space Energy Development Alliance. This alliance directly binds the country’s massive terrestrial solar manufacturing capabilities to the aerospace supply chain.  As “space solar can be beamed to receivers placed anywhere there is space for them and the receivers can be connected directly to large users, or to a local microgrid or the Grid for further distribution” explained Sanjay Vijendran Co-founder & CTO of TerraSpark.

But the real question is will New York remain the Financial Center of the World?

Supporting AI inference and blockchain tokenization of the financial markets requires massive terrestrial data center power.  New York’s statewide moratorium on new hyperscale data centers will temporarily hinder large-scale infrastructure deployment.

However, the SUNNY Act (Solar Up Now New York Act) is currently on Governor Kathy Hochul’s desk awaiting for her signature to legalize window solar panels for commercial and residential buildings including terrestrial data centers. The state legislature passed the bill, and NYC officials are urging her to sign it so that

New York can “remain the financial center of the world by embracing change but also demanding that change uplift our people,” Hochul said at a press conference announcing the order.

About the Author:

Selva Ozelli Esq, CPA, is an international digital asset legal expert and author of Sustainably Investing in Digital Assets Globally.  Her writings are translated into 45 languages and republished in over 200 global publications.  She is recognized as an expert media/TV commentator on global digital asset regulation, tax, and technology matters.

See more breaking stories here.