Severe weather an increasing risk for data center construction
These new data centers are not like any previous generations of data center development in that modern AI campuses can span up to 20 buildings, consume as much as 2,000 megawatts of electricity, and house billions of dollars’ worth of servers and cooling equipment.
In addition, insurance providers are struggling to keep pace with the massive growth in projected value of these data centers. Zurich says the average value of the data centers it insured has jumped from roughly $150 million five years ago to about $3 billion today, while the largest campuses can be measured in the tens of billions of dollars.
The report cited six areas of concern, including severe weather. Severe weather has surpassed fire as leading construction threat due to changing geography. Zurich states that 64% of U.S. data center capacity currently under construction is located outside traditional markets, such as Northern Virginia, in areas that are known for bad weather. They include West Texas, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Ohio, where tornadoes, hailstorms, and high winds present new hazards.
