Pima County just greenlit a 290-acre data center project, Project Blue, even after Amazon walked away and no replacement hyperscaler is confirmed.
The pivot from water cooling to more power-hungry air cooling, driven by Tucson’s refusal to provide reclaimed water, shifts the risk profile from water stress to heavy grid and energy dependence.
Tucson Electric Power is locked into a 10-year energy supply agreement for the site, signaling significant new load on an already scrutinized Arizona grid as AI and cloud demand grow.
Local officials are betting on a projected $3.6 billion investment, hundreds of long-term jobs, and thousands of construction jobs, while critics warn of higher electric rates, environmental strain, and health impacts.
Speculation around potential replacements for Amazon, including Meta, underscores that this is being positioned as hyperscale-ready capacity, even if the final AI or cloud tenant is not public yet.
Beale is doubling down with a second 600-acre, air‑cooled campus in Marana, reinforcing southern Arizona as an emerging data center zone despite mounting political and community pushback.
The article is worth a read for how it captures the real trade-offs between AI-scale data center growth, water scarcity, and grid impacts in the desert Southwest.
Source: Pima County Moves Forward With Rejected Data Center – AZ FREE NEWS
