Energy

In 2025, residents of St. Charles, Missouri  delivered a clear message: large-scale digital infrastructure cannot move forward without community trust, transparency, and alignment with local priorities. A proposed billion-dollar data center—touted as an economic win—was ultimately withdrawn after sustained public opposition, prompting city leaders to pause all similar projects for at least a year. The episode offers a revealing case study in how communities are reassessing th

As AI data centers evolve into integrated energy-and-compute systems, they expose a deeper structural mismatch between modern digital infrastructure and legacy power models. The challenge is not simply the amount of electricity AI consumes, but the way that consumption collides with grids optimized for slower growth, distributed demand, and predictable usage patterns. To understand why self-generation is emerging as a rational response—not a radical one—it is necessary to exa