California Data Center Intel

Recent California data center news

• Apr 30, 2026

  Environmental protest on campus

  The Associated Students at the University of California Riverside Office of External Affairs and the Green Campus Action Plan organized an environmental protest on April 21 to raise awareness of air pollution and climate justice issues in the Inland Empire.

  • Event details: Protest held on April 21 in front of UCR’s bell tower; organized by Associated Students at the University of California Riverside Office of External Affairs and Green Campus Action Plan with participation from Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ) to highlight concerns about data center and warehouse growth, UCR’s industrial boiler emissions, and local air quality.
  • Background and policy focus: Organizers urged student engagement in local politics (including Riverside’s General Plan update and truck routing/warehouse development decisions), and noted ongoing collaboration with the South Coast Air Quality Management District on stricter regulations and transitions to zero-emission technologies (electric boilers, heat pumps). Locations mentioned include Moreno Valley and Bloomington in the Inland Empire.
• Apr 29, 2026

  Experts Warn Lagging IT And Communications Technology Threatens U.S. Security

  Lawmakers and industry experts warned Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security must modernize its information technology and communications systems to address growing cyber and physical threats to critical infrastructure.

  • Main announcement/action: At a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on April 29, 2026, witnesses urged DHS to modernize IT and communications systems and to formally recognize data centers and communications networks as critical infrastructure requiring coordinated federal oversight. They called for strengthened supply chain security, expanded information sharing, and closer government-industry collaboration; witnesses highlighted workforce reductions (including significant cuts at CISA) as limiting federal response capacity.
  • Background and details: The hearing cited the China-linked “Salt Typhoon” espionage campaign — said to have compromised telecommunications providers in more than 80 countries and collected more than 1 million American call records — as evidence of escalating threats. Key witnesses included Mark Montgomery (Foundation for Defense of Democracies), Robert Mayer (USTelecom), Scott Algeier (IT-ISAC), and Sam Visner (Space ISAC). Lawmakers also raised concerns about the continued sale of advanced semiconductor technology to China and the resulting supply chain exposure.
• Apr 28, 2026

  Catalina Island Getting Closer to Fiber Internet Service

  AVX Networks has advanced the Catalina Island high-speed internet project into its marine survey phase.

  • AVX Networks has begun a marine survey for a 25-mile subsea fiber-optic cable between Huntington Beach (mainland) and Avalon (Catalina Island), with the project scheduled to finish in 2028; the survey will collect sonar imagery, magnetometer readings, and other data to enable buried cable routing that avoids shipwrecks and marine habitat.
  • The project is funded by a $37.5 million grant from the California Public Utilities Commission and is expected to serve more than 1,185 currently unserved locations (excluding LEO services such as Starlink); DEC LLC (AVX Networks’ parent) views the project as a strategic proof point for its Ark Genesis infrastructure platform (per Submarine Telecoms Forum, February).
• Apr 28, 2026

  California Utilities Have a Solution to Soaring Energy Prices: More Data Centers

  PG&E is advancing a policy and commercial push to attract large data center loads as a means to lower electric rates for California ratepayers.

  • Main announcement/action: PG&E has celebrated the delivery of its first large data-center customer in San Jose and is actively courting hyperscalers; the utility announced a rate decrease in March 2026 and asserts that each 1 GW of data center load could reduce electric rates by 1–2%, while forecasting up to 12.6 GW of potential data-center load from current applications (enough to power 8.4 million homes). CPUC also approved Electric Rule No. 30 (July 2025) requiring applicants to pay transmission upgrade costs upfront to protect ratepayers.
  • Background and other details: Regulatory and research sources (Brattle Group and LBNL) show California’s retail electricity prices rose markedly 2019–2024 (California at 30.29 cents/kWh); Cal Advocates warns transmission upgrades could run in the billions and recommends cost-responsibility rules. State-level bills (Sen. Scott Padilla, March) would streamline environmental review (ELDP incentives) and impose tariffs to ensure data centers offset costs; a March presidential Rate Payer Protection Pledge was signed by major tech firms (Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, xAI).
• Apr 28, 2026

  Climate Justice Forum speakers weigh AI environmental cost, sustainability outlook

  Environmentalists of Color Collective hosted the 2026 Climate Justice Forum at Kerckhoff Grand Salon on April 27, 2026.

  • Main announcement/action: The Environmentalists of Color Collective (ECC) hosted the Climate Justice Forum to raise awareness and foster dialogue about environmental justice and AI’s impact on climate and workforce; speakers included Naya Bender (ECC Co‑President), Helene Cornell (co‑founder, Aris Hydronics), Arnav Patel (doctoral student), Lizzeth Rosales (Director of Environmental Justice for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass) and Victoria Nguyen (UC Irvine doctoral candidate, moderator).
  • Background and event details:
    • Date & location: April 27, 2026 (Wednesday) at Kerckhoff Grand Salon.
    • Agenda/subject: discussion on AI energy/water demands, environmental justice concerns around AI data centers’ water and energy use, AI applications for home energy optimization (Aris Hydronics’ AI‑driven sensor product), and AI’s role in diversifying climate research (language/access concerns).
• Apr 27, 2026

  Roundup: Energy from space / Billionaire tax / Herbicide lawsuits

  Meta has struck an agreement to access future capacity of space-based solar power to support its data centers.

  • Main announcement: Meta has struck a deal that gives it access to future capacity from a space-based solar power project intended to one day beam electricity to Earth, aimed at supporting Meta’s growing AI and data center demand. The article is reported by Bloomberg on April 27, 2026.
  • Background and other details: The piece frames this as Meta looking beyond natural gas and traditional renewables to meet soaring data-center energy needs; separate items in the same briefing note report that California backers gathered signatures for a proposed one-time 5% billionaire tax for the November ballot, and the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a Roundup (Monsanto/Bayer) cancer-warning lawsuit.
• Apr 27, 2026

  Rethinking Utility Incentives and Business Models in the Age of Distributed Energy

  Deep Patel (founder and CEO of Gigawatt Inc.) argues that utility incentive structures must be realigned to value distributed energy resources (DERs) and to shift utilities from capital builders to orchestrators of a distributed grid.

  • Main announcement/action: The article calls for regulatory and policy changes to treat distributed energy as a core capacity resource, redesign rate structures and compensation mechanisms to reflect DER system value, and shift utility incentives from capital deployment to outcome and performance-based compensation. It cites concrete utility programs: Con Edison’s Brooklyn-Queens Demand Management (used DERs to defer a substation), Hawaiian Electric customer battery programs, and Green Mountain Power customer-sited storage as examples of implementation.
  • Background and details: The commentary highlights accelerating load drivers — electrification, data centers, and AI infrastructure — and recommends operational changes including feeder-level visibility, improved forecasting for net load, and aggregated DER deployment. It stresses expanding access via community solar and shared storage and integrating DERs into utility planning to defer infrastructure upgrades.
• Apr 27, 2026

  Residents left furious as their picturesque small town surrounded by forests and nature is set to be 'ruined' by sprawling data centers... but they're refusing to back down

  Cornell Realty Management has applied to develop the Wildcat Ridge AI Data Center and multiple developers are preparing to build several large data centres in Archbald, Pennsylvania.

  • Project scope & developer action: Cornell Realty Management applied for the Wildcat Ridge AI Data Center campus (14 centres across 400 acres) and other proposals could see 51 data warehouses built on ~14% of Archbald’s land; developers claim the campus would be at least 1,500 feet from homes, create 1,280 jobs, be as quiet as a ‘normal conversation’, and use about 50,000 gallons of water a day.
  • Permitting, finances & community response: Developers state the project would generate $7 million in annual borough tax revenue and $23 million for the school system; residents and local officials (including Mayor Shirley Barrett) are actively opposing the plans via a Stop Archbald Data Centers Facebook group (~10,000 members) and council meetings. Additional state and local permits are required and construction could still take months to years to begin even if local approvals advance.
• Apr 27, 2026

  A faster way to estimate AI power consumption

  MIT researchers and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab have developed EnergAIzer, a fast estimator that predicts power consumption of AI workloads on GPUs.

  • Main announcement: The team (led by Kyungmi Lee with senior author Anantha P. Chandrakasan) unveiled EnergAIzer, a lightweight estimation model that produces reliable GPU power estimates in a few seconds (vs. hours or days for traditional emulation) and achieved about 8 percent error when tested on real GPU workloads; the research is being presented at the IEEE International Symposium on Performance Analysis of Systems and Software.
  • Background and details: The method leverages repeatable software optimization patterns to generate fast estimates, includes correction terms derived from real GPU measurements for accuracy, can be applied to future/emerging GPU configurations, and the work was funded in part by the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab.
• Apr 25, 2026

  How do you feel about AI’s environmental impact?

  Gannon Knight’s Roundtable asked Gannon students and staff their thoughts on AI’s environmental impact.

  • Main announcement/action: Gannon Knight surveyed Gannon University participants — including Sam Mason, Ph.D. (Director of Project NePTWNE; oversees the Center for Lake Erie Education and Research, CLEER), Zara Toomaney (senior, Environmental Engineering), and Sophia Cuzzola (junior; IBM SkillsBuild student ambassador) — on April 25, 2026. The article cites external research: University of California, Riverside (reported by The Washington Post) finding that every 100-word AI search uses roughly 519 milliliters of water, and a LinkedIn (2025) stat that 66% of leaders would not hire someone without AI literacy.

  • Details/background: Interviewees noted concrete environmental impacts — AI/data centers require large amounts of energy and water (cooling towers) which can impact nearby cities’ water pressure and quality and increase carbon emissions. They recommended using AI as a service, not a replacement, and urged cross-disciplinary action involving environmental experts, policymakers, researchers, and developers to pursue more sustainable AI practices.