Dark Clouds - To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World - page 124

was Microsoft, the business that, in the minds of many, saved the state of
Washington from the fate of other declining industrial regions by setting
up its headquarters there rather than in Silicon Valley. In 2006 Microsoft
decided to expand by buying seventy-ive acres of an old bean farm and
building a data center to support its cloud services. The company was
drawn by the abundance of hydroelectric power produced by generators
operated from the nearby Columbia River. It was also attracted by utility
rates priced, thanks to its effective lobbying, at less than half the national
average, which brought a reliable low of power made possible by dams
along the river, including two operated by the local power company.
Finally, Microsoft sought and received generous tax breaks from the state
because it paid property taxes to the town, helping to pave roads and build
a new library for Quincy's 6,900 residents. The head of the power company
summarized a general feeling when the company came to town: “You're
talking about one of the largest corporations. You're talking Microsoft
and Bill Gates. Wow!” (Glanz 2012a).
It did not take long for the wow to turn into pow when a Quincy citi-
zens' group took legal action against Microsoft for pollution spewing from
forty diesel generators that, as is common at data centers, the company
deployed for its primary backup system. The software giant's facility is
located near an elementary school, and parents and neighbors feared the
toxic effects, especially for young students. The term backup generator
does not sound particularly harmful, but those used in data centers are not
the kind homeowners keep in the garage. They are over ten feet tall and
weigh thousands of pounds each, enough to generate 2 million watts per
generator. Just as signiicant, they get used a lot more often than the term
backup would indicate, particularly during frequent periods of building
construction. The state had initially permitted Microsoft to use them for
6,000 hours over the course of a year for emergency backup power or for
“maintenance purposes” (ibid.). It appears, however, that the company
actually used the generators so frequently during a period of data-center
expansion that it asked to be unplugged from the electrical grid to run
entirely on diesel. In 2010, Microsoft ran its Quincy diesel generators for
3,615 hours, sending into the air particulate matter that studies of other
Microsoft data centers found contained enough carcinogens to pose a
threat to people living and working in the area. No assessments were
made in Quincy, but residents knew when the diesel generators powered