Heard vs. the record
Most people only know data centers from the news. Headlines are short. These buildings are not. Each card is a common claim, then the public number behind it. We don't tell you how to vote.
You may have heard
4.4%of U.S. electricity in 2023
What the record says
The cloud is a building full of computers, power gear, and cooling. Your phone, your bank, the weather, and hospital records already use one. National labs track their electricity because they are real loads on the real grid.
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 2024 U.S. data-center energy report
You may have heard
What the record says
A hospital computer room and a giant campus are both called data centers. Size, cooling, and location change power, water, noise, and land by a lot — not a rounding error. Headlines usually show the giant ones.
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 2024; The Green Grid
You may have heard
335 MW signedvs 26,146 MW asked
What the record says
CPS Energy listed 59 projects asking for 26,146 MW. Only 335 MW was actually signed. The waiting list is real. It is not a construction schedule, and it is not your bill.
CPS Energy large-load briefing, as of 12 Jan 2026
You may have heard
What the record says
It depends who pays for new plants and power lines. CPS has said existing data-center contracts are written to recover costs. That is not a promise about every future project. A company asking for power is not using it yet.
CPS Energy briefings, 2026
You may have heard
What the record says
The liquid on the computers is usually a closed loop — like coolant in a car. City water is used, or not, outside the building. A cooling tower turns water into steam. A dry cooler is more like a car radiator.
ASHRAE and The Green Grid cooling practice
You may have heard
What the record says
Some designs use a lot of water at a cooling tower. Others barely use any on most days. SAWS says today's data centers are about 0.1% of San Antonio drinking water — and that future recycled-water requests are much larger than today's use.
SAWS via San Antonio Report, March 2026
You may have heard
What the record says
Recycled water is still water. If a cooling tower turns it into steam, that water leaves the river system. It may spare drinking water. It still competes with other users of the recycled pipe — including power plants.
SAWS, 2026 briefings
You may have heard
What the record says
Building one can put hundreds of people on a site for a year or two. Running one takes a small, specialized crew. Mixing those numbers is how a press release misleads a city council.
Hamm Institute workforce study, 2025 (industry benchmark, not a San Antonio payroll)
You may have heard
~80% of respondentsnot 80% of the city
What the record says
About 80% of people who filled out an opt-in survey said they opposed. That is a share of respondents, not a share of the city. Full results have not been released. Treat it as a pulse, not a census.
District 3 / Texas A&M community survey, 2026 · preliminary, opt-in
You may have heard
What the record says
A data center can run hard all day and night. Houses peak in the evening. The “homes” number is a snapshot of how wide the power pipe is — useful for scale, not a copy of your annual bill.
ERCOT large-load materials; U.S. EIA household average
Data last checked 2026-09-04 · Current public data is a snapshot, not a live meter
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