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Compute Lives Somewhere

Anatomy

A data center is a building full of computers.

Keeping those computers powered, connected, and cool is the hard part. Click each piece. White space is the hall. Gray space is everything that makes the hall possible.

Selected

Utility grid

What it does
The public power system that already serves homes, hospitals, and factories.
Why you need it
A data center is a large, steady customer of that system — or a customer that brings its own generation.
What can go wrong
If the grid is short on generation or wires, everyone feels it on hot afternoons.
Why the community should care
The question is not only 'how many megawatts' but who pays to connect them.
Fact

White space

The room with the racks. This is the part in the artist’s rendering.

Fact

Gray space

Switchgear, UPS, batteries, generators, cooling plant. Often larger than the hall. This is the part that uses land, makes noise, and waits on transformers.

Next: heat has to leave. That is where water enters the story — or does not. Open the cooling explorer.

Data last checked 2026-09-04 · Current public data is a snapshot, not a live meter

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