Data centers want to be sustainable, panelists say. Transparency also in demand

By Nicole Lopez, Fort Worth Report
August 21, 2026

University of Texas at Arlington computer science and engineering assistant professor Mohammad Atiqul Islam has observed misinformation spread about data centers, particularly about how the supercomputer hubs work and their technology. 

That’s why he wants to see more transparency from those representing the data center industry, including details on their impact on natural resources.

“It is bringing a lot of economic activity” to Texas, Islam said of the industry. “We want to have that, but we have to think about what are the consequences of having data centers.”

This was one of the points Islam joined other panelists in making at Thursday’s event, Informed Discussion: Data Centers in Fort Worth, hosted by the Fort Worth Report and moderated by local government editor Scott Nishimura.

TCU Ralph Lowe Energy Institute executive director Nikki Morris and journalist and Concept Elemental founder Jennifer Warren joined Islam as panelists. They each answered questions about data center demand, the state’s economy, the electric grid, and pushback from residents and local governments as interest in the topic booms in North Texas.

Texas houses 26 gigawatts of existing and under-construction data center power capacity, according to a report from Fort Worth Inc.

Morris referred to this power demand as “in the queue” — projects pending connection to the state’s electric grid. She said those numbers are tentative. 

“Under half of those projects will ever be connected,” Morris said. “They’re not going to be connected tomorrow.”

While a pause is needed to assess those demands, Morris reassured attendees that Texas is successful when it comes to providing substantial infrastructure, energy sources and land to meet those demands.

Warren said the data center audit issued by Gov. Greg Abbott will also help thin out the queue to be served by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas — the agency that oversees the electric grid, which encompasses 90% of the state.

Later, Islam explained the relationship between data centers and their need for resources, and how this can lead to misinformation.

Some developers have publicly stated that their facilities consume very little water, Islam said. However, they do not always define what that consumption looks like. 

For example, an efficient data center can consume significantly less resources than others. However, during the summer, even a water-efficient data center could place additional pressure on resources due to an increase of demand during that time period, Islam added. This is because people are consuming more water during the summer, piling on demand to already-strained supplies.

“This is actually a great opportunity for the community and the industry to work together to find best solutions,” Islam said. 

Industries, including data centers, are exploring “produced water” to cool their facilities more sustainably. Produced water is a product of oil and gas fracking, according to the American Geosciences Institute. Water is pulled and brought to the surface when oil and gas are extracted from rock materials.

“We have limited surface water,” Morris said. “We don’t want to take our potable water for some other uses.”

Produced water is the largest waste stream from the oil and gas industry and is highly regulated because it is considered toxic material. Morris wants to see how it can be turned into a larger resource for industrial operations. 

Warren pivoted the conversation by stating there are good data center developers and operators. She cited a Dallas-area data center built by Digital Realty in 2004 as an example.

The site has not garnered complaints about noise and has been a good neighbor to the surrounding community, Warren said, adding that clean operations and consideration of the public need to remain as the data center boom unfolds.

“The facilities have to be really well built,” Warren said, describing high-performing equipment that make up data centers, such as computer chips. 

She said developers are aligned with sustainability because of their desire to reduce costs in power, water and land use. 

Warren pointed to Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta as hyperscalers that are looking to more sustainable practices, such as clean energy. However, the demand in natural gas remains as industries need what Warren described as “firm power.”

“There is this big push to be more efficient and get more performance out of existing assets” Warren said. 

The full discussion of the Aug. 20 event can be viewed at the Fort Worth Report’s event website. 

Nicole Lopez is the environment reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.lopez@fortworthreport.org.

The Report’s environment coverage is supported by the Marilyn Brachman Hoffman Foundation. 

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.