HEI Energy Special Project: Data Centers and Health

As data centers proliferate to meet the growing demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing, it will be important to evaluate both the societal benefits and the unintended consequences. Data centers are an urgent focus for industry, government officials, thought leaders, and other stakeholders , and HEI is assessing the environmental health benefits and drawbacks that governing, powering, and operating data centers may bring to those living nearby. Initially, HEI is examining potential population exposures associated with on-site power sources, including air emissions, noise, and other factors that could influence human health and well-being. 
 

Planned Activities

Pilot Project and Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA) Presentation (March 2026)
In September 2025, HEI released its cumulative impact assessment framework and checklist, “Roadmap to Health: Assessing Adverse and Beneficial Environmental, Social, and Economic Cumulative Exposures,” to provide practical, transparent, and broadly applicable guidance for evaluating cumulative exposures to beneficial and adverse impacts in  a variety of applications. HEI is piloting the framework on a data center in Pennsylvania.

We will present the process and initial results in a plenary at the AWMA Data Centers conference in Virginia, March 24-26.

Webinar Series (Starting Spring 2026)|
HEI’s “Energy and Health" webinar series will resume, starting with webinars focused on environmental health and energy topics relevant to data centers. Stay tuned.

Convenings (Summer – Fall 2026)
HEI will convene in-person, multisector groups of experts to share and discuss what is known about powering and operating data centers and their potential environmental health benefits and disbenefits. HEI can play a useful role in providing the impartial scientific information needed to support health-protective decisions about data center siting and operation.

The output from these convenings will be reports that summarize knowledge that can be applied now to support health-protective decisions about the siting, operations, and governance of data centers, along with an articulation of key knowledge gaps and unanswered questions that merit further research to be useful decision-making inputs. 

Knowledge Summaries (2026-2027)
HEI will periodically produce concise literature reviews, research briefs and other knowledge products – based on scientific and gray literature – that synthesize current understanding of the environmental health benefits and disbenefits associated with data centers.