North Dakota Sees New Data Center Debates

(Adobe Stock via Prairie News Service)

(By Mike Moen. Prairie News Service.) – A data center company hopes to break ground soon on a new project in North Dakota, with promises of economic gains but in addition to community-level push back, the proposal faces questions about sustainability.

The firm behind the project, Applied Digital, wants to build a $3 billion data center just outside Fargo. Officials said it is needed to meet the surge in demand for storing digital data and it would add at least 200 jobs to the area.

Michael Graalum, clean energy field organizer for the Dakota Resource Council, questioned whether it is worth it to use land protected by the flood mitigation effort known as the Red River Diversion.

“Especially in Fargo, it’s just such a waste of land that we’ve worked so hard to make viable,” Graalum contended. “We’re just gonna throw it away for a data center, and it’s thoroughly frustrating.”