In a recent opinion piece, Rupert Goodwins of The Register argues that the datacenter industry is its own worst enemy. He points to a growing public perception of datacenters as environmental disasters, driven by opaque energy consumption figures and a perceived disregard for local communities. Without reliable, independently verifiable data on how much electricity a given AI query or workload consumes, he says, neither individuals nor policymakers can make informed choices about ethical use.
Goodwins is particularly critical of the industry's habit of deflecting criticism with promises of future nuclear or fusion power, which he says will not arrive in time to address the immediate consequences of the current build-out. He also dismisses the notion that AI will magically design its own environmental problems away. Instead, he suggests that a more open, collaborative approach—sharing real operational data and engaging honestly with critics—could rebuild trust.
As a concrete alternative, Goodwins highlights the potential of marine datacenters powered by tidal and wave energy. He describes a project by Panthalassa that uses an 85-metre floating structure to generate electricity from wave motion, with the hardware sealed inside a seawater-cooled container and connected via satellite. Such floating farms could be towed for maintenance, avoiding the complexity and cost of orbital systems. He argues that an industry serious about sustainability would be pushing harder on floating in the ocean than floating in space—and that open source thinking, applied to both technology and governance, might undo the self-inflicted damage. The piece is opinion, so no competing sources are involved, but its core claims stand on the author's analysis of industry behavior and technological alternatives.}}}{