Google's Waltham Cross datacenter in Hertfordshire has been at the centre of controversy after residents expressed frustration over poor communication and environmental impact concerns. The datacenter, which was officially opened last year, sits on a 33-acre site north of the M25 motorway and is expected to provide up to 77 MW of IT capacity when full.
During a meeting with local residents and Google representatives at the Broxbourne Council Offices, attendees voiced their concerns over the lack of consultation before the project's approval. Many felt that they had not been adequately informed about the datacenter's construction and the potential effects on their area.
One of the main concerns raised was the noise and light pollution from the facility, with residents claiming that they could hear a distinct hum coming from the site, particularly in the evening. This is a common issue with datacenter sites around the world, with cooling infrastructure often blamed.
Google's server operations site manager, Dan Dale, explained that the company is currently working on projects related to lighting, which will be designed to be on only when needed and when access is required. He also stated that the situation is expected to improve, with the company having tried to angle the lighting down as much as possible at the site.
The environmental impact of the datacenter was also a topic of discussion, with locals and experts raising concerns over the heat island effect. A University of Cambridge-led preprint earlier this year claimed that datacenters create heat islands, raising surrounding temperatures by several degrees at distances up to 10 km. Google's datacenter team presented slides detailing the new facility's closed-loop chiller system, which they insisted means that water consumption is minimal.